Data processing system and processing unit having an address-based launch governor

ABSTRACT

A data processing system includes an interconnect fabric, a protected resource having a plurality of banks each associated with a respective one of a plurality of address sets, a snooper that controls access to the resource, one or more masters that initiate requests, and interconnect logic coupled to the one or more masters and to the interconnect fabric. The interconnect logic regulates a rate of delivery to the snooper via the interconnect fabric of requests that target any one the plurality of banks of the protected resource.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/054,910, filed on Feb. 10, 2005 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,415,030,entitled “Data Processing System, Method and Interconnect Fabric Havingan Address-Based Launch Governor” which is also related to the followingU.S. Patent Application(s), which are assigned to the assignee hereofand incorporated herein by reference in their entireties:

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/055,305, now U.S. Pat. No.7,237,070; and

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/054,841.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates in general to data processing systems and,in particular, to an improved interconnect fabric for data processingsystems.

2. Description of the Related Art

A conventional symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) computer system, such as aserver computer system, includes multiple processing units all coupledto a system interconnect, which typically comprises one or more address,data and control buses. Coupled to the system interconnect is a systemmemory, which represents the lowest level of volatile memory in themultiprocessor computer system and which generally is accessible forread and write access by all processing units. In order to reduce accesslatency to instructions and data residing in the system memory, eachprocessing unit is typically further supported by a respectivemulti-level cache hierarchy, the lower level(s) of which may be sharedby one or more processor cores.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

As the clock frequencies at which processing units are capable ofoperating have risen and system scales have increased, the latency ofcommunication between processing units via the system interconnect hasbecome a critical performance concern. To address this performanceconcern, various interconnect designs have been proposed and/orimplemented that are intended to improve performance and scalabilityover conventional bused interconnects.

The present invention provides an improved data processing system,interconnect fabric and method of communication in a data processingsystem. In one embodiment, A data processing system includes a firstprocessing node and a second processing node coupled by an interconnectfabric. The first processing node includes a plurality of firstprocessing units coupled to each other for communication, and the secondprocessing node includes a plurality of second processing units coupledto each other for communication. A first processing unit in the firstprocessing node includes interconnect logic that processes a pluralityof concurrently pending broadcast operations of differing broadcastscope. At least a first of the plurality of concurrently pendingbroadcast operations has a first scope limited to the first processingnode, and at least a second of the plurality of concurrently pendingbroadcast operations has a second scope including the first processingnode and the second processing node.

In another embodiment, a data processing system includes an interconnectfabric, a protected resource having a plurality of banks each associatedwith a respective one of a plurality of address sets, a snooper thatcontrols access to the resource, one or more masters that initiaterequests, and interconnect logic coupled to the one or more masters andto the interconnect fabric. The interconnect logic regulates a rate ofdelivery to the snooper via the interconnect fabric of requests thattarget any one the plurality of banks of the protected resource.

All objects, features, and advantages of the present invention willbecome apparent in the following detailed written description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are setforth in the appended claims. However, the invention, as well as apreferred mode of use, will best be understood by reference to thefollowing detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when readin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a high level block diagram of a processing unit in accordancewith the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a high level block diagram of an exemplary data processingsystem in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a time-space diagram of an exemplary operation including arequest phase, a partial response phase and a combined response phase;

FIG. 4A is a time-space diagram of an exemplary operation of system-widescope within the data processing system of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4B is a time-space diagram of an exemplary operation of node-onlyscope within the data processing system of FIG. 2;

FIGS. 5A-5C depict the information flow of the exemplary operationdepicted in FIG. 4A;

FIGS. 5D-5E depict an exemplary data flow for an exemplary system-widebroadcast operation in accordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 5F-5H depict the information flow of the exemplary operationdepicted in FIG. 4B;

FIGS. 5I-5J depict an exemplary data flow for an exemplary node-onlybroadcast operation in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a time-space diagram of an exemplary operation, illustratingthe timing constraints of an arbitrary data processing system topology;

FIGS. 7A-7B illustrate a first exemplary link information allocation forthe first and second tier links in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 7C is an exemplary embodiment of a partial response field for awrite request that is included within the link information allocation;

FIGS. 8A-8B depict a second exemplary link information allocation forthe first and second tier links in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a portion of the interconnectlogic of FIG. 1 utilized in the request phase of an operation;

FIG. 10 is a more detailed block diagram of the local hub address launchbuffer of FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a more detailed block diagram of the tag FIFO queues of FIG.9;

FIGS. 12A and 12B are more detailed block diagrams of the local hubpartial response FIFO queue and remote hub partial response FIFO queueof FIG. 9, respectively;

FIGS. 13A-13B are time-space diagrams respectively illustrating thetenures of a system-wide broadcast operation and a node-only broadcastoperation with respect to the data structures depicted in FIG. 9;

FIGS. 14A-14D are flowcharts respectively depicting the request phase ofan operation at a local master, local hub, remote hub, and remote leaf;

FIG. 14E is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary method ofgenerating a partial response at a snooper in accordance with thepresent invention;

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating a portion of the interconnectlogic of FIG. 1 utilized in the partial response phase of an operation;

FIGS. 16A-16C are flowcharts respectively depicting the partial responsephase of an operation at a remote leaf, remote hub, local hub, and localmaster;

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating a portion of the interconnectlogic of FIG. 1 utilized in the combined response phase of an operation;

FIGS. 18A-18C are flowcharts respectively depicting the combinedresponse phase of an operation at a local hub, remote hub, and remoteleaf; and

FIG. 19 is a more detailed block diagram of an exemplary snoopingcomponent of the data processing system of FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENT I. Processing Unit andData Processing System

With reference now to the figures and, in particular, with reference toFIG. 1, there is illustrated a high level block diagram of an exemplaryembodiment of a processing unit 100 in accordance with the presentinvention. In the depicted embodiment, processing unit 100 is a singleintegrated circuit including two processor cores 102 a, 102 b forindependently processing instructions and data. Each processor core 102includes at least an instruction sequencing unit (ISU) 104 for fetchingand ordering instructions for execution and one or more execution units106 for executing instructions. The instructions executed by executionunits 106 may include, for example, fixed and floating point arithmeticinstructions, logical instructions, and instructions that request readand write access to a memory block.

The operation of each processor core 102 a, 102 b is supported by amulti-level volatile memory hierarchy having at its lowest level one ormore shared system memories 132 (only one of which is shown in FIG. 1)and, at its upper levels, one or more levels of cache memory. Asdepicted, processing unit 100 includes an integrated memory controller(IMC) 124 that controls read and write access to a system memory 132 inresponse to requests received from processor cores 102 a, 102 b andoperations snooped on an interconnect fabric (described below) bysnoopers 126.

In the illustrative embodiment, the cache memory hierarchy of processingunit 100 includes a store-through level one (L1) cache 108 within eachprocessor core 102 a, 102 b and a level two (L2) cache 110 shared by allprocessor cores 102 a, 102 b of the processing unit 100. L2 cache 110includes an L2 array and directory 114, masters 112 and snoopers 116.Masters 112 initiate transactions on the interconnect fabric and accessL2 array and directory 114 in response to memory access (and other)requests received from the associated processor cores 102 a, 102 b.Snoopers 116 detect operations on the interconnect fabric, provideappropriate responses, and perform any accesses to L2 array anddirectory 114 required by the operations. Although the illustrated cachehierarchy includes only two levels of cache, those skilled in the artwill appreciate that alternative embodiments may include additionallevels (L3, L4, etc.) of on-chip or off-chip in-line or lookaside cache,which may be fully inclusive, partially inclusive, or non-inclusive ofthe contents the upper levels of cache.

As further shown in FIG. 1, processing unit 100 includes integratedinterconnect logic 120 by which processing unit 100 may be coupled tothe interconnect fabric as part of a larger data processing system. Inthe depicted embodiment, interconnect logic 120 supports an arbitrarynumber t1 of “first tier” interconnect links, which in this case includein-bound and out-bound X, Y and Z links. Interconnect logic 120 furthersupports an arbitrary number t2 of second tier links, designated in FIG.1 as in-bound and out-bound A and B links. With these first and secondtier links, each processing unit 100 may be coupled for bi-directionalcommunication to up to t1/2+t2/2 (in this case, five) other processingunits 100. Interconnect logic 120 includes request logic 121 a, partialresponse logic 121 b, combined response logic 121 c and data logic 121 dfor processing and forwarding information during different phases ofoperations. In addition, interconnect logic 120 includes a configurationregister 123 including a plurality of mode bits utilized to configureprocessing unit 100. As further described below, these mode bitspreferably include: (1) a first set of one or more mode bits thatselects a desired link information allocation for the first and secondtier links; (2) a second set of mode bits that specify which of thefirst and second tier links of the processing unit 100 are connected toother processing units 100; (3) a third set of mode bits that determinesa programmable duration of a protection window extension; and (4) afourth set of mode bits that predictively selects a scope of broadcastfor operations initiated by the processing unit 100 on anoperation-by-operation basis from among a node-only broadcast scope or asystem-wide scope, as described in above-referenced U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/055,305.

Each processing unit 100 further includes an instance of response logic122, which implements a portion of a distributed coherency signalingmechanism that maintains cache coherency between the cache hierarchy ofprocessing unit 100 and those of other processing units 100. Finally,each processing unit 100 includes an integrated I/O (input/output)controller 128 supporting the attachment of one or more I/O devices,such as I/O device 130. I/O controller 128 may issue operations andreceive data on the X, Y, Z, A and B links in response to requests byI/O device 130.

Referring now to FIG. 2, there is depicted a block diagram of anexemplary embodiment of a data processing system 200 formed of multipleprocessing units 100 in accordance with the present invention. As shown,data processing system 200 includes eight processing nodes 202 a 0-202 d0 and 202 a 1-202 d 1, which in the depicted embodiment, are eachrealized as a multi-chip module (MCM) comprising a package containingfour processing units 100. The processing units 100 within eachprocessing node 202 are coupled for point-to-point communication by theprocessing units' X, Y, and Z links, as shown. Each processing unit 100may be further coupled to processing units 100 in two differentprocessing nodes 202 for point-to-point communication by the processingunits' A and B links. Although illustrated in FIG. 2 with adouble-headed arrow, it should be understood that each pair of X, Y, Z,A and B links are preferably (but not necessarily) implemented as twouni-directional links, rather than as a bi-directional link.

General expressions for forming the topology shown in FIG. 2 can begiven as follows:

Node[ I ][ K ].chip[ J ].link[ K ] connects to Node[ J ][ K ].chip[ I].link[ K ], for all I ≠ J; and Node[ I ][ K ].chip[ I ].link[ K ]connects to Node[ I ][ not K ].chip[ I ].link[ not K ]; and Node[ I ][ K].chip[ I ].link[ not K ] connects either to:   (1) Nothing in reservedfor future expansion; or   (2) Node[ extra ][ not K ].chip[ I ].link[ K], in case in which   all links are fully utilized (i.e., nine 8-waynodes forming a 72-way   system); and where I and J belong to the set{a, b, c, d} and K   belongs to the set {A, B}.

Of course, alternative expressions can be defined to form otherfunctionally equivalent topologies. Moreover, it should be appreciatedthat the depicted topology is representative but not exhaustive of dataprocessing system topologies embodying the present invention and thatother topologies are possible. In such alternative topologies, forexample, the number of first tier and second tier links coupled to eachprocessing unit 100 can be an arbitrary number, and the number ofprocessing nodes 202 within each tier (i.e., I) need not equal thenumber of processing units 100 per processing node 100 (i.e., J).

Even though fully connected in the manner shown in FIG. 2, allprocessing nodes 202 need not communicate each operation to all otherprocessing nodes 202. In particular, as noted above, processing units100 may broadcast operations with a scope limited to their processingnode 202 or with a larger scope, such as a system-wide scope includingall processing nodes 202.

As shown in FIG. 19, an exemplary snooping device 1900 within dataprocessing system 200, for example, an snoopers 116 of L2 (or lowerlevel) cache or snoopers 126 of an IMC 124, may include one or more baseaddress registers (BARs) 1902 identifying one or more regions of thereal address space containing real addresses for which the snoopingdevice 1900 is responsible. Snooping device 1900 may optionally furtherinclude hash logic 1904 that performs a hash function on real addressesfalling within the region(s) of real address space identified by BAR1902 to further qualify whether or not the snooping device 1900 isresponsible for the addresses. Finally, snooping device 1900 includes anumber of snoopers 1906 a-1906 m that access resource 1910 (e.g., L2cache array and directory 114 or system memory 132) in response tosnooped requests specifying request addresses qualified by BAR 1902 andhash logic 1904.

As shown, resource 1910 may have a banked structure including multiplebanks 1912 a-1912 n each associated with a respective set of realaddresses. As is known to those skilled in the art, such banked designsare often employed to support a higher arrival rate of requests forresource 1910 by effectively subdividing resource 1910 into multipleindependently accessible resources. In this manner, even if theoperating frequency of snooping device 1900 and/or resource 1910 aresuch that snooping device 1900 cannot service requests to accessresource 1910 as fast as the maximum arrival rate of such requests,snooping device 1900 can service such requests without retry as long asthe number of requests received for any bank 1912 within a given timeinterval does not exceed the number of requests that can be serviced bythat bank 1912 within that time interval.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that SMP data processing system100 can include many additional unillustrated components, such asinterconnect bridges, non-volatile storage, ports for connection tonetworks or attached devices, etc. Because such additional componentsare not necessary for an understanding of the present invention, theyare not illustrated in FIG. 2 or discussed further herein.

II. Exemplary Operation

Referring now to FIG. 3, there is depicted a time-space diagram of anexemplary operation on the interconnect fabric of data processing system200 of FIG. 2. The operation begins when a master 300 (e.g., a master112 of an L2 cache 110 or a master within an I/O controller 128) issuesa request 302 on the interconnect fabric. Request 302 preferablyincludes at least a transaction type indicating a type of desired accessand a resource identifier (e.g., real address) indicating a resource tobe accessed by the request. Common types of requests preferably includethose set forth below in Table I.

TABLE I Request Description READ Requests a copy of the image of amemory block for query purposes RWITM (Read-With- Requests a unique copyof the image of a memory block with the intent Intent-To-Modify) toupdate (modify) it and requires destruction of other copies, if anyDCLAIM (Data Requests authority to promote an existing query-only copyof memory Claim) block to a unique copy with the intent to update(modify) it and requires destruction of other copies, if any DCBZ (DataCache Requests authority to create a new unique copy of a memory blockBlock Zero) without regard to its present state and subsequently modifyits contents; requires destruction of other copies, if any CASTOUTCopies the image of a memory block from a higher level of memory to alower level of memory in preparation for the destruction of the higherlevel copy WRITE Requests authority to create a new unique copy of amemory block without regard to its present state and immediately copythe image of the memory block from a higher level memory to a lowerlevel memory in preparation for the destruction of the higher level copyPARTIAL WRITE Requests authority to create a new unique copy of apartial memory block without regard to its present state and immediatelycopy the image of the partial memory block from a higher level memory toa lower level memory in preparation for the destruction of the higherlevel copy

Further details regarding these operations and an exemplary cachecoherency protocol that facilitates efficient handling of theseoperations may be found in the copending U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/055,305 incorporated by reference above.

Request 302 is received by snoopers 304, for example, snoopers 116 of L2caches 110 and snoopers 126 of IMCs 124, distributed throughout dataprocessing system 200. In general, with some exceptions, snoopers 116 inthe same L2 cache 110 as the master 112 of request 302 do not snooprequest 302 (i.e., there is generally no self-snooping) because arequest 302 is transmitted on the interconnect fabric only if therequest 302 cannot be serviced internally by a processing unit 100.Snoopers 304 that receive and process requests 302 each provide arespective partial response 306 representing the response of at leastthat snooper 304 to request 302. A snooper 126 within an IMC 124determines the partial response 306 to provide based, for example, uponwhether the snooper 126 is responsible for the request address andwhether it has resources available to service the request. A snooper 116of an L2 cache 110 may determine its partial response 306 based on, forexample, the availability of its L2 cache directory 114, theavailability of a snoop logic instance within snooper 116 to handle therequest, and the coherency state associated with the request address inL2 cache directory 114.

The partial responses 306 of snoopers 304 are logically combined eitherin stages or all at once by one or more instances of response logic 122to determine a combined response (CR) 310 to request 302. In onepreferred embodiment, which will be assumed hereinafter, the instance ofresponse logic 122 responsible for generating combined response 310 islocated in the processing unit 100 containing the master 300 that issuedrequest 302. Response logic 122 provides combined response 310 to master300 and snoopers 304 via the interconnect fabric to indicate theresponse (e.g., success, failure, retry, etc.) to request 302. If the CR310 indicates success of request 302, CR 310 may indicate, for example,a data source for a requested memory block, a cache state in which therequested memory block is to be cached by master 300, and whether“cleanup” operations invalidating the requested memory block in one ormore L2 caches 110 are required.

In response to receipt of combined response 310, one or more of master300 and snoopers 304 typically perform one or more operations in orderto service request 302. These operations may include supplying data tomaster 300, invalidating or otherwise updating the coherency state ofdata cached in one or more L2 caches 110, performing castout operations,writing back data to a system memory 132, etc. If required by request302, a requested or target memory block may be transmitted to or frommaster 300 before or after the generation of combined response 310 byresponse logic 122.

In the following description, the partial response 306 of a snooper 304to a request 302 and the operations performed by the snooper 304 inresponse to the request 302 and/or its combined response 310 will bedescribed with reference to whether that snooper is a Highest Point ofCoherency (HPC), a Lowest Point of Coherency (LPC), or neither withrespect to the request address specified by the request. An LPC isdefined herein as a memory device or I/O device that serves as therepository for a memory block. In the absence of a HPC for the memoryblock, the LPC holds the true image of the memory block and hasauthority to grant or deny requests to generate an additional cachedcopy of the memory block. For a typical request in the data processingsystem embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2, the LPC will be the memorycontroller 124 for the system memory 132 holding the referenced memoryblock. An HPC is defined herein as a uniquely identified device thatcaches a true image of the memory block (which may or may not beconsistent with the corresponding memory block at the LPC) and has theauthority to grant or deny a request to modify the memory block.Descriptively, the HPC may also provide a copy of the memory block to arequestor in response to an operation that does not modify the memoryblock. Thus, for a typical request in the data processing systemembodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2, the HPC, if any, will be an L2 cache 110.Although other indicators may be utilized to designate an HPC for amemory block, a preferred embodiment of the present invention designatesthe HPC, if any, for a memory block utilizing selected cache coherencystate(s) within the L2 cache directory 114 of an L2 cache 110.

Still referring to FIG. 3, the HPC, if any, for a memory blockreferenced in a request 302, or in the absence of an HPC, the LPC of thememory block, preferably has the responsibility of protecting thetransfer of ownership of a memory block, if necessary, in response to arequest 302. In the exemplary scenario shown in FIG. 3, a snooper 304 nat the HPC (or in the absence of an HPC, the LPC) for the memory blockspecified by the request address of request 302 protects the transfer ofownership of the requested memory block to master 300 during aprotection window 312 a that extends from the time that snooper 304 ndetermines its partial response 306 until snooper 304 n receivescombined response 310 and during a subsequent window extension 312 bextending a programmable time beyond receipt by snooper 304 n ofcombined response 310. During protection window 312 a and windowextension 312 b, snooper 304 n protects the transfer of ownership byproviding partial responses 306 to other requests specifying the samerequest address that prevent other masters from obtaining ownership(e.g., a retry partial response) until ownership has been successfullytransferred to master 300. Master 300 likewise initiates a protectionwindow 313 to protect its ownership of the memory block requested inrequest 302 following receipt of combined response 310.

Because snoopers 304 all have limited resources for handling the CPU andI/O requests described above, several different levels of partialresponses and corresponding CRs are possible. For example, if a snooper126 within a memory controller 124 that is responsible for a requestedmemory block has a queue available to handle a request, the snooper 126may respond with a partial response indicating that it is able to serveas the LPC for the request. If, on the other hand, the snooper 126 hasno queue available to handle the request, the snooper 126 may respondwith a partial response indicating that is the LPC for the memory block,but is unable to currently service the request. Similarly, a snooper 116in an L2 cache 110 may require an available instance of snoop logic andaccess to L2 cache directory 114 in order to handle a request. Absenceof access to either (or both) of these resources results in a partialresponse (and corresponding CR) signaling an inability to service therequest due to absence of a required resource.

III. Broadcast Flow of Exemplary Operations

Referring now to FIG. 4A, which will be described in conjunction withFIGS. 5A-5C, there is illustrated a time-space diagram of an exemplaryoperation flow of an operation of system-wide scope in data processingsystem 200 of FIG. 2. In these figures, the various processing units 100within data processing system 200 are tagged with two locationalidentifiers—a first identifying the processing node 202 to which theprocessing unit 100 belongs and a second identifying the particularprocessing unit 100 within the processing node 202. Thus, for example,processing unit 100 a 0 c refers to processing unit 100 c of processingnode 202 a 0. In addition, each processing unit 100 is tagged with afunctional identifier indicating its function relative to the otherprocessing units 100 participating in the operation. These functionalidentifiers include: (1) local master (LM), which designates theprocessing unit 100 that originates the operation, (2) local hub (LH),which designates a processing unit 100 that is in the same processingnode 202 as the local master and that is responsible for transmittingthe operation to another processing node 202 (a local master can also bea local hub), (3) remote hub (RH), which designates a processing unit100 that is in a different processing node 202 than the local master andthat is responsible to distribute the operation to other processingunits 100 in its processing node 202, and (4) remote leaf (RL), whichdesignates a processing unit 100 that is in a different processing node202 from the local master and that is not a remote hub.

As shown in FIG. 4A, the exemplary operation has at least three phasesas described above with reference to FIG. 3, namely, a request (oraddress) phase, a partial response (Presp) phase, and a combinedresponse (Cresp) phase. These three phases preferably occur in theforegoing order and do not overlap. The operation may additionally havea data phase, which may optionally overlap with any of the request,partial response and combined response phases.

Still referring to FIG. 4A and referring additionally to FIG. 5A, therequest phase begins when a local master 100 a 0 c (i.e., processingunit 100 c of processing node 202 a 0) performs a synchronized broadcastof a request, for example, a read request, to each of the local hubs 100a 0 a, 100 a 0 b, 100 a 0 c and 100 a 0 d within its processing node 202a 0. It should be noted that the list of local hubs includes local hub100 a 0 c, which is also the local master. As described further below,this internal transmission is advantageously employed to synchronize theoperation of local hub 100 a 0 c with local hubs 100 a 0 a, 100 a 0 band 100 a 0 d so that the timing constraints discussed below can be moreeasily satisfied.

In response to receiving the request, each local hub 100 that is coupledto a remote hub 100 by its A or B links transmits the operation to itsremote hub(s) 100. Thus, local hub 100 a 0 a makes no transmission ofthe operation on its outbound A link, but transmits the operation viaits outbound B link to a remote hub within processing node 202 a 1.Local hubs 100 a 0 b, 100 a 0 c and 100 a 0 d transmit the operation viatheir respective outbound A and B links to remote hubs in processingnodes 202 b 0 and 202 b 1, processing nodes 202 c 0 and 202 c 1, andprocessing nodes 202 d 0 and 202 d 1, respectively. Each remote hub 100receiving the operation in turn transmits the operation to each remoteleaf 100 in its processing node 202. Thus, for example, local hub 100 b0 a transmits the operation to remote leaves 100 b 0 b, 100 b 0 c and100 b 0 d. In this manner, the operation is efficiently broadcast to allprocessing units 100 within data processing system 200 utilizingtransmission over no more than three links.

Following the request phase, the partial response (Presp) phase occurs,as shown in FIGS. 4A and 5B. In the partial response phase, each remoteleaf 100 evaluates the operation and provides its partial response tothe operation to its respective remote hub 100. For example, remoteleaves 100 b 0 b, 100 b 0 c and 100 b 0 d transmit their respectivepartial responses to remote hub 100 b 0 a. Each remote hub 100 in turntransmits these partial responses, as well as its own partial response,to a respective one of local hubs 100 a 0 a, 100 a 0 b, 100 a 0 c and100 a 0 d. Local hubs 100 a 0 a, 100 a 0 b, 100 a 0 c and 100 a 0 d thenbroadcast these partial responses, as well as their own partialresponses, to each local hub 100 in processing node 202 a 0. It shouldbe noted by reference to FIG. 5B that the broadcast of partial responsesby the local hubs 100 within processing node 202 a 0 includes, fortiming reasons, the self-broadcast by each local hub 100 of its ownpartial response.

As will be appreciated, the collection of partial responses in themanner shown can be implemented in a number of different ways. Forexample, it is possible to communicate an individual partial responseback to each local hub from each other local hub, remote hub and remoteleaf. Alternatively, for greater efficiency, it may be desirable toaccumulate partial responses as they are communicated back to the localhubs. In order to ensure that the effect of each partial response isaccurately communicated back to local hubs 100, it is preferred that thepartial responses be accumulated, if at all, in a non-destructivemanner, for example, utilizing a logical OR function and an encoding inwhich no relevant information is lost when subjected to such a function(e.g., a “one-hot” encoding).

As further shown in FIG. 4A and FIG. 5C, response logic 122 at eachlocal hub 100 within processing node 202 a 0 compiles the partialresponses of the other processing units 100 to obtain a combinedresponse representing the system-wide response to the request. Localhubs 100 a 0 a-100 a 0 d then broadcast the combined response to allprocessing units 100 following the same paths of distribution asemployed for the request phase. Thus, the combined response is firstbroadcast to remote hubs 100, which in turn transmit the combinedresponse to each remote leaf 100 within their respective processingnodes 202. For example, remote hub 100 a 0 b transmits the combinedresponse to remote hub 100 b 0 a, which in turn transmits the combinedresponse to remote leaves 100 b 0 b, 100 b 0 c and 100 b 0 d.

As noted above, servicing the operation may require an additional dataphase, such as shown in FIG. 5D or 5E. For example, as shown in FIG. 5D,if the operation is a read-type operation, such as a read or RWITMoperation, remote leaf 100 b 0 d may source the requested memory blockto local master 100 a 0 c via the links connecting remote leaf 100 b 0 dto remote hub 100 b 0 a, remote hub 100 b 0 a to local hub 100 a 0 b,and local hub 100 a 0 b to local master 100 a 0 c. Conversely, if theoperation is a write-type operation, for example, a cache castoutoperation writing a modified memory block back to the system memory 132of remote leaf 100 b 0 b, the memory block is transmitted via the linksconnecting local master 100 a 0 c to local hub 100 a 0 b, local hub 100a 0 b to remote hub 100 b 0 a, and remote hub 100 b 0 a to remote leaf100 b 0 b, as shown in FIG. 5E.

Referring now to FIG. 4B, which will be described in conjunction withFIGS. 5F-5H, there is illustrated a time-space diagram of an exemplaryoperation flow of an operation of node-only scope in data processingsystem 200 of FIG. 2. In these figures, the various processing units 100within data processing system 200 are tagged with two locationalidentifiers—a first identifying the processing node 202 to which theprocessing unit 100 belongs and a second identifying the particularprocessing unit 100 within the processing node 202. Thus, for example,processing unit 100 b 0 a refers to processing unit 100 b of processingnode 202 b 0. In addition, each processing unit 100 is tagged with afunctional identifier indicating its function relative to the otherprocessing units 100 participating in the operation. These functionalidentifiers include: (1) node master (NM), which designates theprocessing unit 100 that originates an operation of node-only scope, and(2) node leaf (NL), which designates a processing unit 100 that is inthe same processing node 202 as the node master and that is not the nodemaster.

As shown in FIG. 4B, the exemplary node-only operation has at leastthree phases as described above: a request (or address) phase, a partialresponse (Presp) phase, and a combined response (Cresp) phase. Again,these three phases preferably occur in the foregoing order and do notoverlap. The operation may additionally have a data phase, which mayoptionally overlap with any of the request, partial response andcombined response phases.

Still referring to FIG. 4B and referring additionally to FIG. 5F, therequest phase begins when a node master 100 b 0 a (i.e., processing unit100 a of processing node 202 b 0), which functions much like a remotehub in the operational scenario of FIG. 4A, performs a synchronizedbroadcast of a request, for example, a read request, to each of the nodeleaves 100 b 0 b, 100 b 0 c, and 100 b 0 d within its processing node202 b 0. It should be noted that, because the scope of the broadcasttransmission is limited to a single node, no internal transmission ofthe request within node master 100 b 0 a is employed to synchronizeoff-node transmission of the request.

Following the request phase, the partial response (Presp) phase occurs,as shown in FIGS. 4B and 5G. In the partial response phase, each of nodeleaves 100 b 0 b, 100 b 0 c and 100 b 0 d evaluates the operation andprovides its partial response to the operation to node master 100 b 0 a.Next, as further shown in FIG. 4B and FIG. 5H, response logic 122 atnode master 100 b 0 a within processing node 202 b 0 compiles thepartial responses of the other processing units 100 to obtain a combinedresponse representing the node-wide response to the request. Node master100 b 0 a then broadcasts the combined response to all node leaves 100 b0 b, 100 b 0 c and 1000 b 0 d utilizing the X, Y and Z links of nodemaster 100 b 0 a.

As noted above, servicing the operation may require an additional dataphase, such as shown in FIG. 5I or 5J. For example, as shown in FIG. 5I,if the operation is a read-type operation, such as a read or RWITMoperation, node leaf 100 b 0 d may source the requested memory block tonode master 100 b 0 a via the Z link connecting node leaf 100 b 0 d tonode master 100 b 0 a. Conversely, if the operation is a write-typeoperation, for example, a cache castout operation writing a modifiedmemory block back to the system memory 132 of remote leaf 100 b 0 b, thememory block is transmitted via the X link connecting node master 100 b0 a to node leaf 100 b 0 b, as shown in FIG. 5J.

Of course, the two operations depicted in FIG. 4A and FIGS. 5A-5E andFIG. 4B and FIGS. 5F-5J are merely exemplary of the myriad of possiblesystem-wide and node-only operations that may occur concurrently in amultiprocessor data processing system such as data processing system200.

IV. Timing Considerations

As described above with reference to FIG. 3, coherency is maintainedduring the “handoff” of coherency ownership of a memory block from asnooper 304 n to a requesting master 300 in the possible presence ofother masters competing for ownership of the same memory block throughprotection window 312 a, window extension 312 b, and protection window313. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, protection window 312 a and windowextension 312 b must together be of sufficient duration to protect thetransfer of coherency ownership of the requested memory block fromsnooper 304 n to winning master (WM) 300 in the presence of a competingrequest 322 by a competing master (CM) 320. To ensure that protectionwindow 312 a and window extension 312 b have sufficient duration toprotect the transfer of ownership of the requested memory block fromsnooper 304 n to winning master 300, the latency of communicationbetween processing units 100 in accordance with FIGS. 4A and 4B ispreferably constrained such that the following conditions are met:A _(—) lat(CM _(—) S)≦A _(—) lat(CM _(—) WM)+C _(—) lat(WM _(—) S)+ε,where A_lat(CM_S) is the address latency of any competing master (CM)320 to the snooper (S) 304 n owning coherence of the requested memoryblock, A_lat(CM_WM) is the address latency of any competing master (CM)320 to the “winning” master (WM) 300 that is awarded coherency ownershipby snooper 304 n, C_lat(WM_S) is the combined response latency from thetime that the combined response is received by the winning master (WM)300 to the time the combined response is received by the snooper (S) 304n owning the requested memory block, and ε is the duration of windowextension 312 b.

If the foregoing timing constraint, which is applicable to a system ofarbitrary topology, is not satisfied, the request 322 of the competingmaster 320 may be received (1) by winning master 300 prior to winningmaster 300 assuming coherency ownership and initiating protection window312 b and (2) by snooper 304 n after protection window 312 a and windowextension 312 b end. In such cases, neither winning master 300 norsnooper 304 n will provide a partial response to competing request 322that prevents competing master 320 from assuming coherency ownership ofthe memory block and reading non-coherent data from memory. However, toavoid this coherency error, window extension 312 b can be programmablyset (e.g., by appropriate setting of configuration register 123) to anarbitrary length (ε) to compensate for latency variations or theshortcomings of a physical implementation that may otherwise fail tosatisfy the timing constraint that must be satisfied to maintaincoherency. Thus, by solving the above equation for ε, the ideal lengthof window extension 312 b for any implementation can be determined. Forthe data processing system embodiment of FIG. 2, it is preferred if εhas a duration equal to the latency of one first tier link chip-hop forbroadcast operations having a scope including multiple processing nodes202 and has a duration of zero for operations of node-only scope.

Several observations may be made regarding the foregoing timingconstraint. First, the address latency from the competing master 320 tothe owning snooper 304 a has no necessary lower bound, but must have anupper bound. The upper bound is designed for by determining the worstcase latency attainable given, among other things, the maximum possibleoscillator drift, the longest links coupling processing units 100, themaximum number of accumulated stalls, and guaranteed worst casethroughput. In order to ensure the upper bound is observed, theinterconnect fabric must ensure non-blocking behavior.

Second, the address latency from the competing master 320 to the winningmaster 300 has no necessary upper bound, but must have a lower bound.The lower bound is determined by the best case latency attainable,given, among other things, the absence of stalls, the shortest possiblelink between processing units 100 and the slowest oscillator drift givena particular static configuration.

Although for a given operation, each of the winning master 300 andcompeting master 320 has only one timing bound for its respectiverequest, it will be appreciated that during the course of operation anyprocessing unit 100 may be a winning master for some operations and acompeting (and losing) master for other operations. Consequently, eachprocessing unit 100 effectively has an upper bound and a lower bound forits address latency.

Third, the combined response latency from the time that the combinedresponse is generated to the time the combined response is observed bythe winning master 300 has no necessary lower bound (the combinedresponse may arrive at the winning master 300 at an arbitrarily earlytime), but must have an upper bound. By contrast, the combined responselatency from the time that a combined response is generated until thecombined response is received by the snooper 304 n has a lower bound,but no necessary upper bound (although one may be arbitrarily imposed tolimit the number of operations concurrently in flight).

Fourth, there is no constraint on partial response latency. That is,because all of the terms of the timing constraint enumerated abovepertain to request/address latency and combined response latency, thepartial response latencies of snoopers 304 and competing master 320 towinning master 300 have no necessary upper or lower bounds.

V. Exemplary Link Information Allocation

The first tier and second tier links connecting processing units 100 maybe implemented in a variety of ways to obtain the topology depicted inFIG. 2 and to meet the timing constraints illustrated in FIG. 6. In onepreferred embodiment, each inbound and outbound first tier (X, Y and Z)link and each inbound and outbound second tier (A and B) link isimplemented as a uni-directional 8-byte bus containing a number ofdifferent virtual channels or tenures to convey address, data, controland coherency information.

With reference now to FIGS. 7A-7B, there is illustrated a firstexemplary time-sliced information allocation for the first tier X, Y andZ links and second tier A and B links. As shown, in this firstembodiment information is allocated on the first and second tier linksin a repeating 8 cycle frame in which the first 4 cycles comprise twoaddress tenures transporting address, coherency and control informationand the second 4 cycles are dedicated to a data tenure providing datatransport.

Reference is first made to FIG. 7A, which illustrates the linkinformation allocation for the first tier links. In each cycle in whichthe cycle number modulo 8 is 0, byte 0 communicates a transaction type700 a (e.g., a read) of a first operation, bytes 1-5 provide the 5 loweraddress bytes 702 a 1 of the request address of the first operation, andbytes 6-7 form a reserved field 704. In the next cycle (i.e., the cyclefor which cycle number modulo 8 is 1), bytes 0-1 communicate a mastertag 706 a identifying the master 300 of the first operation (e.g., oneof L2 cache masters 112 or a master within I/O controller 128), and byte2 conveys the high address byte 702 a 2 of the request address of thefirst operation. Communicated together with this information pertainingto the first operation are up to three additional fields pertaining todifferent operations, namely, a local partial response 708 a intendedfor a local master in the same processing node 202 (bytes 3-4), acombined response 710 a in byte 5, and a remote partial response 712 aintended for a local master in a different processing node 202 (or inthe case of a node-only broadcast, the partial response communicatedfrom the node leaf 100 to node master 100) (bytes 6-7). As noted above,these first two cycles form what is referred to herein as an addresstenure.

As further illustrated in FIG. 7A, the next two cycles (i.e., the cyclesfor which the cycle number modulo 8 is 2 and 3) form a second addresstenure having the same basic pattern as the first address tenure, withthe exception that reserved field 704 is replaced with a data tag 714and data token 715 forming a portion of the data tenure. Specifically,data tag 714 identifies the destination data sink to which the 32 bytesof data payload 716 a-716 d appearing in cycles 4-7 are directed. Itslocation within the address tenure immediately preceding the payloaddata advantageously permits the configuration of downstream steering inadvance of receipt of the payload data, and hence, efficient datarouting toward the specified data sink. Data token 715 provides anindication that a downstream queue entry has been freed and,consequently, that additional data may be transmitted on the paired X,Y, Z or A link without risk of overrun. Again it should be noted thattransaction type 700 b, master tag 706 b, low address bytes 702 b 1, andhigh address byte 702 b 2 all pertain to a second operation, and datatag 714, local partial response 708 b, combined response 710 b andremote partial response 712 b all relate to one or more operations otherthan the second operation.

Each transaction type field 700 and combined response field 710preferably includes a scope indicator 730 indicating whether theoperation to which it belongs has a node-only (local) or system-wide(global) scope. As described in greater detail in cross-referenced U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/055,305, which is incorporated byreference above, data tag 714 further includes a domain indicator 732that may be set by the LPC to indicate whether or not a remote copy ofthe data contained within data payload 716 a-716 d may exist.

FIG. 7B depicts the link information allocation for the second tier Aand B links. As can be seen by comparison with FIG. 7A, the linkinformation allocation on the second tier A and B links is the same asthat for the first tier links given in FIG. 7A, except that localpartial response fields 708 a, 708 b are replaced with reserved fields718 a, 718 b. This replacement is made for the simple reason that, as asecond tier link, no local partial responses need to be communicated.

FIG. 7C illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a write request partialresponse 720, which may be transported within either a local partialresponse field 708 a, 708 b or a remote partial response field 712 a,712 b in response to a write request. As shown, write request partialresponse 720 is two bytes in length and includes a 15-bit destinationtag field 724 for specifying the tag of a snooper (e.g., an IMC snooper126) that is the destination for write data and a 1-bit valid (V) flag722 for indicating the validity of destination tag field 724.

Referring now to FIGS. 8A-8B, there is depicted a second exemplarycyclical information allocation for the first tier X, Y and Z links andsecond tier A links. As shown, in the second embodiment information isallocated on the first and second tier links in a repeating 6 cycleframe in which the first 2 cycles comprise an address frame containingaddress, coherency and control information and the second 4 cycles arededicated to data transport. The tenures in the embodiment of FIGS.8A-8B are identical to those depicted in cycles 2-7 of FIGS. 7A-7B andare accordingly not described further herein. For write requests, thepartial responses communicated within local partial response field 808and remote partial response field 812 may take the form of write requestpartial response 720 of FIG. 7C.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the embodimentsof FIGS. 7A-7B and 8A-8B depict only two of a vast number of possiblelink information allocations. The selected link information allocationthat is implemented can be made programmable, for example, through ahardware and/or software-settable mode bit in a configuration register123 of FIG. 1. The selection of the link information allocation istypically based on one or more factors, such as the type of anticipatedworkload. For example, if scientific workloads predominate in dataprocessing system 200, it is generally more preferable to allocate morebandwidth on the first and second tier links to data payload. Thus, thesecond embodiment shown in FIGS. 8A-8B will likely yield improvedperformance. Conversely, if commercial workloads predominate in dataprocessing system 200, it is generally more preferable to allocate morebandwidth to address, coherency and control information, in which casethe first embodiment shown in FIGS. 7A-7B would support higherperformance. Although the determination of the type(s) of anticipatedworkload and the setting of configuration register 123 can be performedby a human operator, it is advantageous if the determination is made byhardware and/or software in an automated fashion. For example, in oneembodiment, the determination of the type of workload can be made byservice processor code executing on one or more of processing units 100or on a dedicated auxiliary service processor (not illustrated).

VI. Request Phase Structure and Operation

Referring now to FIG. 9, there is depicted a block diagram illustratingrequest logic 121 a within interconnect logic 120 of FIG. 1 utilized inrequest phase processing of an operation. As shown, request logic 121 aincludes a master multiplexer 900 coupled to receive requests by themasters 300 of a processing unit 100 (e.g., masters 112 within L2 cache110 and masters within I/O controller 128). The output of mastermultiplexer 900 forms one input of a request multiplexer 904. The secondinput of request multiplexer 904 is coupled to the output of a remotehub multiplexer 903 having its inputs coupled to the outputs of holdbuffers 902 a, 902 b, which are in turn coupled to receive and bufferrequests on the inbound A and B links, respectively. Remote hubmultiplexer 903 implements a fair allocation policy, described furtherbelow, that fairly selects among the requests received from the inboundA and B links that are buffered in hold buffers 902 a-902 b. If present,a request presented to request multiplexer 904 by remote hub multiplexer903 is always given priority by request multiplexer 904. The output ofrequest multiplexer 904 drives a request bus 905 that is coupled to eachof the outbound X, Y and Z links, a node master/remote hub (NM/RH) holdbuffer 906, and the local hub (LH) address launch buffer 910. A previousrequest FIFO buffer 907, which is also coupled to request bus 905,preferably holds a small amount of address-related information for eachof a number of previous address tenures to permit a determination of theaddress slice or resource bank 1912 to which the address, if any,communicated in that address tenure hashes. For example, in oneembodiment, each entry of previous request FIFO buffer 907 contains a“1-hot” encoding identifying a particular one of banks 1912 a-1912 n towhich the request address of an associated request hashed. For addresstenures in which no request is transmitted on request bus 905, the 1-hotencoding would be all ‘0’s.

The inbound first tier (X, Y and Z) links are each coupled to the LHaddress launch buffer 910, as well as a respective one of nodeleaf/remote leaf (NL/RL) hold buffers 914 a-914 c. The outputs of NM/RHhold buffer 906, LH address launch buffer 910, and NL/RL hold buffers914 a-914 c all form inputs of a snoop multiplexer 920. Coupled to theoutput of LH address launch buffer 910 is another previous buffer 911,which is preferably constructed like previous request FIFO buffer 907.The output of snoop multiplexer 920 drives a snoop bus 922 to which tagFIFO queues 924, the snoopers 304 (e.g., snoopers 116 of L2 cache 110and snoopers 126 of IMC 124) of the processing unit 100, and theoutbound A and B links are coupled. Snoopers 304 are further coupled toand supported by local hub (LH) partial response FIFO queues 930 andnode master/remote hub (NM/RH) partial response FIFO queue 940.

Although other embodiments are possible, it is preferable if buffers902, 906, and 914 a-914 c remain short in order to minimizecommunication latency. In one preferred embodiment, each of buffers 902,906, and 914 a-914 c is sized to hold only the address tenure(s) of asingle frame of the selected link information allocation.

With reference now to FIG. 10, there is illustrated a more detailedblock diagram of local hub (LH) address launch buffer 910 of FIG. 9. Asdepicted, the local and inbound X, Y and Z link inputs of the LH addresslaunch buffer 910 form inputs of a map logic 1010, which places requestsreceived on each particular input into a respective correspondingposition-dependent FIFO queue 1020 a-1020 d. In the depictednomenclature, the processing unit 100 a in the upper left-hand corner ofa processing node/MCM 202 is the “S” chip; the processing unit 100 b inthe upper right-hand corner of the processing node/MCM 202 is the “T”chip; the processing unit 100 c in the lower left-hand corner of aprocessing node/MCM 202 is the “U” chip; and the processing unit 100 din the lower right-hand corner of the processing node 202 is the “V”chip. Thus, for example, for local master/local hub 100 ac, requestsreceived on the local input are placed by map logic 1010 in U FIFO queue1020 c, and requests received on the inbound Y link are placed by maplogic 1010 in S FIFO queue 1020 a. Map logic 1010 is employed tonormalize input flows so that arbitration logic 1032, described below,in all local hubs 100 is synchronized to handle requests identicallywithout employing any explicit inter-communication.

Although placed within position-dependent FIFO queues 1020 a-1020 d,requests are not immediately marked as valid and available for dispatch.Instead, the validation of requests in each of position-dependent FIFOqueues 1020 a-1020 d is subject to a respective one of programmabledelays 1000 a-1000 d in order to synchronize the requests that arereceived during each address tenure on the four inputs. Thus, theprogrammable delay 1000 a associated with the local input, whichreceives the request self-broadcast at the local master/local hub 100,is generally considerably longer than those associated with the otherinputs. In order to ensure that the appropriate requests are validated,the validation signals generated by programmable delays 1000 a-1000 dare subject to the same mapping by map logic 1010 as the underlyingrequests.

The outputs of position-dependent FIFO queues 1020 a-1020 d form theinputs of local hub request multiplexer 1030, which selects one requestfrom among position-dependent FIFO queues 1020 a-1020 d for presentationto snoop multiplexer 920 in response to a select signal generated byarbiter 1032. Arbiter 1032 implements a fair arbitration policy that issynchronized in its selections with the arbiters 1032 of all other localhubs 100 within a given processing node 202 so that the same request isbroadcast on the outbound A links at the same time by all local hubs 100in a processing node 202, as depicted in FIGS. 4 and 5A. Thus, giveneither of the exemplary link information allocation shown in FIGS. 7Band 8B, the output of local hub request multiplexer 1030 istimeslice-aligned to the address tenure(s) of an outbound A link requestframe.

Because the input bandwidth of LH address launch buffer 910 is fourtimes its output bandwidth, overruns of position-dependent FIFO queues1020 a-1020 d are a design concern. In a preferred embodiment, queueoverruns are prevented by implementing, for each position-dependent FIFOqueue 1020, a pool of local hub tokens equal in size to the depth of theassociated position-dependent FIFO queue 1020. A free local hub token isrequired for a local master to send a request to a local hub andguarantees that the local hub can queue the request. Thus, a local hubtoken is allocated when a request is issued by a local master 100 to aposition-dependent FIFO queue 1020 in the local hub 100 and freed forreuse when arbiter 1032 issues an entry from the position-dependent FIFOqueue 1020.

Referring now to FIG. 11, there is depicted a more detailed blockdiagram of tag FIFO queues 924 of FIG. 9. As shown, tag FIFO queues 924include a local hub (LH) tag FIFO queue 924 a, remote hub (RH) tag FIFOqueues 924 b 0-924 b 1, node master (NM) tag FIFO queue 924 b 2, remoteleaf (RL) tag FIFO queues 924 c 0-924 c 1, 924 d 0-924 d 1 and 924 e0-924 e 1, and node leaf (NL) tag FIFO queues 924 c 2, 924 d 2 and 924 e2. The master tag of a request of an operation of system-wide scope isdeposited in each of tag FIFO queues 924 a, 924 b 0-924 b 1, 924 c 0-924c 1, 924 d 0-924 d 1 and 924 e 0-924 e 1 when the request is received atthe processing unit(s) 100 serving in each of these given roles (LH, RH,and RL) for that particular request. Similarly, the master tag of arequest of an operation of node-only scope is deposited in each of tagFIFO queues 924 b 2, 924 c 2, 924 d 2 and 924 e 2 when the request isreceived at the processing unit(s) 100 serving in each of these givenroles (NM and NL) for that particular request. The master tag isretrieved from each of tag FIFO queues 924 when the combined response isreceived at the associated processing unit 100. Thus, rather thantransporting the master tag with the combined response, master tags areretrieved by a processing unit 100 from its tag FIFO queue 924 asneeded, resulting in bandwidth savings on the first and second tierlinks. Given that the order in which a combined response is received atthe various processing units 100 is identical to the order in which theassociated request was received, a FIFO policy for allocation andretrieval of the master tag can advantageously be employed.

LH tag FIFO queue 924 a includes a number of entries, each including amaster tag field 1100 for storing the master tag of a request launchedby arbiter 1032. Each of tag FIFO queues 924 b 0-924 b 1 similarlyincludes multiple entries, each including at least a master tag field1100 for storing the master tag of a request of system-wide scopereceived by a remote hub 100 via a respective one of the inbound A and Blinks. Tag FIFO queues 924 c 0-924 c 1, 924 d 0-924 d 1 and 924 e 0-924e 1 are similarly constructed and each hold master tags of requests ofsystem-wide scope received by a remote leaf 100 via a unique pairing ofinbound first and second tier links. For requests of node-only broadcastscope, NM tag FIFO queues 924 b 2 holds the master tags of requestsoriginated by the node master 100, and each of NL tag FIFO queues 924 c2, 924 d 2 and 924 e 2 provides storage for the master tags of requestsreceived by a node leaf 100 on a respective one of the first tier X, Yand Z links.

As depicted in FIGS. 13A-13B, which are described below, entries withinLH tag FIFO queue 924 a have the longest tenures for system-widebroadcast operations, and NM tag FIFO queue 924 b 2 have the longesttenures for node-only broadcast operations. Consequently, the depths ofLH tag FIFO queue 924 a and NM tag FIFO queue 924 b 2 respectively limitthe number of concurrent operations of system-wide scope that aprocessing node 202 can issue on the interconnect fabric and the numberof concurrent operations of node-only scope that a given processing unit100 can issue on the interconnect fabric. These depths have no necessaryrelationship and may be different. However, the depths of tag FIFOqueues 924 b 0-924 b 1, 924 c 0-924 c 1, 924 d 0-924 d 1 and 924 e 0-924e 1 are preferably designed to be equal to that of LH tag FIFO queue 924a, and the depths of tag FIFO queues 924 c 2, 924 d 2 and 924 e 2 arepreferably designed to be equal to that of NM tag FIFO queue 924 b 2.

With reference now to FIGS. 12A and 12B, there are illustrated moredetailed block diagrams of exemplary embodiments of the local hub (LH)partial response FIFO queue 930 and node master/remote hub (NM/RH)partial response FIFO queue 940 of FIG. 9. As indicated, LH partialresponse FIFO queue 930 includes a number of entries 1200 that eachincludes a partial response field 1202 for storing an accumulatedpartial response for a request and a response flag array 1204 havingrespective flags for each of the 6 possible sources from which the localhub 100 may receive a partial response (i.e., local (L), first tier X,Y, Z links, and second tier A and B links) at different times orpossibly simultaneously. Entries 1200 within LH partial response FIFOqueue 930 are allocated via an allocation pointer 1210 and deallocatedvia a deallocation pointer 1212. Various flags comprising response flagarray 1204 are accessed utilizing A pointer 1214, B pointer 1215, Xpointer 1216, Y pointer 1218, and Z pointer 1220.

As described further below, when a partial response for a particularrequest is received by partial response logic 121 b at a local hub 100,the partial response is accumulated within partial response field 1202,and the link from which the partial response was received is recorded bysetting the corresponding flag within response flag array 1204. Thecorresponding one of pointers 1214, 1215, 1216, 1218 and 1220 is thenadvanced to the subsequent entry 1200.

Of course, as described above, each processing unit 100 need not befully coupled to other processing units 100 by each of its 5 inbound (X,Y, Z, A and B) links. Accordingly, flags within response flag array 1204that are associated with unconnected links are ignored. The unconnectedlinks, if any, of each processing unit 100 may be indicated, forexample, by the configuration indicated in configuration register 123,which may be set, for example, by boot code at system startup or by theoperating system when partitioning data processing system 200.

As can be seen by comparison of FIG. 12B and FIG. 12A, NM/RH partialresponse FIFO queue 940 is constructed similarly to LH partial responseFIFO queue 930. NM/RH partial response FIFO queue 940 includes a numberof entries 1230 that each includes a partial response field 1202 forstoring an accumulated partial response and a response flag array 1234having respective flags for each of the up to 4 possible sources fromwhich the node master or remote hub 100 may receive a partial response(i.e., node master (NM)/remote (R), and first tier X, Y, and Z links).In addition, each entry 1230 includes a route field 1236 identifyingwhether the operation is a node-only or system-wide broadcast operationand, for system-wide broadcast operations, which of the inbound secondtier links the request was received upon (and thus which of the outboundsecond tier links the accumulated partial response will be transmittedon). Entries 1230 within NM/RH partial response FIFO queue 940 areallocated via an allocation pointer 1210 and deallocated via adeallocation pointer 1212. Various flags comprising response flag array1234 are accessed and updated utilizing X pointer 1216, Y pointer 1218,and Z pointer 1220.

As noted above with respect to FIG. 12A, each processing unit 100 neednot be fully coupled to other processing units 100 by each of its firsttier X, Y, and Z links. Accordingly, flags within response flag array1204 that are associated with unconnected links are ignored. Theunconnected links, if any, of each processing unit 100 may be indicated,for example, by the configuration indicated in configuration register123.

Referring now to FIG. 13A, there is depicted a time-space diagramillustrating the tenure of an exemplary system-wide broadcast operationwith respect to the exemplary data structures depicted in FIG. 9 throughFIG. 12B. As shown at the top of FIG. 13A and as described previouslywith reference to FIG. 4A, the operation is issued by local master 100 a0 c to each local hub 100, including local hub 100 a 0 b. Local hub 100a 0 b forwards the operation to remote hub 100 b 0 a, which in turnforwards the operation to its remote leaves, including remote leaf 100 b0 d. The partial responses to the operation traverse the same series oflinks in reverse order back to local hubs 100 a 0 a-100 a 0 d, whichbroadcast the accumulated partial responses to each of local hubs 100 a0 a-100 a 0 d. Local hubs 100 a 0 a-100 a 0 c, including local hub 100 a0 b, then distribute the combined response following the sametransmission paths as the request. Thus, local hub 100 a 0 b transmitsthe combined response to remote hub 100 b 0 a, which transmits thecombined response to remote leaf 100 b 0 d.

As dictated by the timing constraints described above, the time from theinitiation of the operation by local master 100 a 0 c to its launch bythe local hubs 100 a 0 a, 100 a 0 b, 100 a 0 c and 100 a 0 d is avariable time, the time from the launch of the operation by local hubs100 to its receipt by the remote leaves 100 is a bounded time, thepartial response latency from the remote leaves 100 to the local hubs100 is a variable time, and the combined response latency from the localhubs 100 to the remote leaves 100 is a bounded time.

Against the backdrop of this timing sequence, FIG. 13A illustrates thetenures of various items of information within various data structureswithin data processing system 200 during the request phase, partialresponse phase, and combined response phase of an operation. Inparticular, the tenure of a request in a LH launch buffer 910 (and hencethe tenure of a local hub token) is depicted at reference numeral 1300,the tenure of an entry in LH tag FIFO queue 924 a is depicted atreference numeral 1302, the tenure of an entry 1200 in LH partialresponse FIFO queue 930 is depicted at block 1304, the tenure of anentry in a RH tag FIFO 924 b 0 or 924 b 1 is depicted at referencenumeral 1306, the tenure of an entry 1230 in a NM/RH partial responseFIFO queue 940 is depicted at reference numeral 1308, and the tenure ofentries in RL tag FIFO queues 924 c 0-924 c 1, 924 d 0-924 d 1 and 924 e0-924 e 1 is depicted at reference numeral 1310. FIG. 13A furtherillustrates the duration of a protection window 1312 a and windowextension 1312 b (also 312 a-312 b of FIGS. 3 and 6) extended by thesnooper within remote leaf 100 b 0 d to protect the transfer ofcoherency ownership of the memory block to local master 100 a 0 c fromgeneration of its partial response until after receipt of the combinedresponse. As shown at reference numeral 1314 (and also at 313 of FIGS. 3and 6), local master 100 a 0 c also protects the transfer of ownershipfrom receipt of the combined response.

As indicated at reference numerals 1302, 1306 and 1310, the entries inthe LH tag FIFO queue 924 a, RH tag FIFO queues 924 b 0-924 b 1 and RLtag FIFO queues 924 c 0-924 c 1, 924 d 0-924 d 1 and 924 e 0-924 e 1 aresubject to the longest tenures. Consequently, the minimum depth of tagFIFO queues 924 (which are generally designed to be the same) limits themaximum number of requests that can be in flight in data processingsystem 200 at any one time. In general, the desired depth of tag FIFOqueues 924 can be selected by dividing the expected maximum latency fromsnooping of a request by an arbitrarily selected processing unit 100 toreceipt of the combined response by that processing unit 100 by themaximum number of requests that can be issued given the selected linkinformation allocation. Although the other queues (e.g., LH partialresponse FIFO queue 930 and NM/RH partial response FIFO queue 940) maysafely be assigned shorter queue depths given the shorter tenure oftheir entries, for simplicity it is desirable in at least someembodiments to set the depth of LH partial response FIFO queue 930 to bethe same as tag FIFO queues 924, and to set the depth of NM/RH partialresponse FIFO queue 940 to be equal to the depth of NM tag FIFO 924 b 2plus t2/2 times the depth of RL tag FIFO queues 924.

FIG. 13B is a time-space diagram illustrating the tenure of an exemplarynode-only broadcast operation with respect to the exemplary datastructures depicted in FIG. 9 through FIG. 12B. As shown at the top ofFIG. 13B and as described previously with reference to FIG. 4B, theoperation is issued by node master 100 b 0 a via its first tier links toeach of its node leaves 100, including node leaf 100 b 0 b. The partialresponses to the operation traverse the first tier links back to nodemaster 100 b 0 a. Node master 100 b 0 a then broadcasts the combinedresponse via its first tier links to each of its node leaves 100,including node leaf 100 b 0 b.

As dictated by the timing constraints described above, the time from theinitiation of the operation by node master 100 b 0 a to its transmissionwithin the node leaves 100 b 0 b, 100 b 0 c, 100 b 0 d is a boundedtime, the partial response latency from the node leaves 100 to the nodemaster 100 b 0 a is a variable time, and the combined response latencyfrom the node master 100 b 0 a to the remote leaves 100 is a boundedtime.

FIG. 13B further illustrates the tenures of various items of informationwithin various data structures within data processing system 200 duringthe request phase, partial response phase, and combined response phaseof a node-only broadcast operation. In particular, the tenure of anentry in NM tag FIFO 924 b 2 is depicted at reference numeral 1320, thetenure of an entry 1230 in a NM/RH partial response FIFO queue 940 isdepicted at reference numeral 1322, and the tenure of the entries in NLtag FIFO queues 924 c 2, 924 d 2 and 924 e 2 is depicted at referencenumeral 1324. No tenures are shown for LH launch buffer 910 (or theassociated local hub token), LH tag FIFO queue 924 a, or LH partialresponse FIFO queue 930 because these structures are not utilized fornode-only broadcast operations.

FIG. 13B finally illustrates the duration of a protection window 1326(also 312 a of FIGS. 3 and 6) extended by the snooper within node leaf100 b 0 b, if necessary to protect the transfer of coherency ownershipof the memory block to node master 100 b 0 a from generation of itspartial response until receipt of the combined response. As shown atreference numeral 1328 (and also at 313 of FIGS. 3 and 6), node master100 b 0 a also protects the transfer of ownership from receipt of thecombined response. For node-only broadcast operations, no windowextension 312 b is required to meet the timing constraints set forthabove.

With reference now to FIG. 14A-14D, flowcharts are given thatrespectively depict exemplary processing of an operation during therequest phase at a local master (or node master), local hub, remote hub(or node master), and remote leaf (or node leaf) in accordance with anexemplary embodiment of the present invention. Referring nowspecifically to FIG. 14A, request phase processing at the local master(or node master, if a node-only broadcast) 100 begins at block 1400 withthe generation of a request by a particular master 300 (e.g., one ofmasters 112 within an L2 cache 110 or a master within an I/O controller128) within a local master 100. Following block 1400, the processproceeds to blocks 1402, 1404, 1406, and 1408, each of which representsa condition on the issuance of the request by the particular master 300.The conditions illustrated at blocks 1402 and 1404 represent theoperation of master multiplexer 900, and the conditions illustrated atblock 1406 and 1408 represent the operation of request multiplexer 904.

Turning first to blocks 1402 and 1404, master multiplexer 900 outputsthe request of the particular master 300 if the fair arbitration policygoverning master multiplexer 900 selects the request of the particularmaster 300 from the requests of (possibly) multiple competing masters300 (block 1402) and, if the request is a system-wide broadcast, if alocal hub token is available for assignment to the request (block 1404).As indicated by block 1415, if the master 300 selects the scope of itsrequest to have a node-only scope (for example, by reference to asetting of configuration register 123 and/or a scope predictionmechanism, such as that described in above-referenced U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/055,305, no local hub token is required, and thecondition illustrated at block 1404 is omitted.

Assuming that the request of the particular master 300 progressesthrough master multiplexer 900 to request multiplexer 904, requestmultiplexer 904 issues the request on request bus 905 only if a addresstenure is then available for a request in the outbound first tier linkinformation allocation (block 1406). That is, the output of requestmultiplexer 904 is timeslice aligned with the selected link informationallocation and will only generate an output during cycles designed tocarry a request (e.g., cycle 0 or 2 of the embodiment of FIG. 7A orcycle 0 of the embodiment of FIG. 8A). As further illustrated at block1408, request multiplexer 904 will only issue a request if no requestfrom the inbound second tier A and B links is presented by remote hubmultiplexer 903 (block 1406), which is always given priority. Thus, thesecond tier links are guaranteed to be non-blocking with respect toinbound requests. Even with such a non-blocking policy, requests bymasters 300 can prevented from “starving” through implementation of anappropriate policy in the arbiter 1032 of the upstream hubs thatprevents “brickwalling” of requests during numerous consecutive addresstenures on the inbound A and B link of the downstream hub.

If a negative determination is made at any of blocks 1402-1408, therequest is delayed, as indicated at block 1410, until a subsequent cycleduring which all of the determinations illustrated at blocks 1402-1408are positive. If, on the other hand, positive determinations are made atall of blocks 1402-1408, the process proceeds to block 1417. Block 1417represents that requests of node-only scope (as indicated by scopeindicator 730 of Ttype field 700 or scope indicator 830 of Ttype field800) are subject to two additional conditions illustrated at blocks 1419and 1423. First, as shown at block 1419, if the request is a node-onlybroadcast request, request multiplexer 904 will issue the request onlyif an entry is available for allocation to the request in NM tag FIFOqueue 924 b 2. If not, the process passes from block 1419 to block 1410,which has been described.

Second, as depicted at block 1423, request multiplexer 904 will issue arequest of node-only scope only if the request address does not hash tothe same bank 1912 of a banked resource 1910 as any of a selected numberof prior requests buffered within previous request FIFO buffer 907. Forexample, assuming that a snooping device 1900 and its associatedresource 1910 are constructed so that snooping device 1900 cannotservice requests at the maximum request arrival rate, but can insteadservice requests at a fraction of the maximum arrival rate expressed as1/R, the selected number of prior requests with which the currentnode-only request vying for launch by request multiplexer 904 iscompared to determine if it falls in the same address slice ispreferably R-1. If multiple different snooping devices 1900 are to beprotected in this manner from request overrun, the selected number ofrequests R-1 is preferably set to the maximum of the set of quantitiesR-1 calculated for the individual snooping devices 1900. Becauseprocessing units 100 preferably do not coordinate their selection ofrequests for broadcast, the throttling of requests in the mannerillustrated at block 1423 does not guarantee that the arrival rate ofrequests at a particular snooping device 1900 will not exceed theservice rate of the snooping device 1900. However, the throttling ofnode-only broadcast requests in the manner shown will limit the numberof requests that can arrive in a given number of cycles, which can beexpressed as:throttled_(—) arr_rate=PU requests per R cycleswhere PU is the number of processing units 100 per processing node 202.Snooping devices 1900 are preferably designed to handle node-onlybroadcast requests arriving at such a throttled arrival rate withoutretry.

If the condition shown at block 1423 is not satisfied, the processpasses from block 1423 to block 1410, which has been described. However,if both of the conditions illustrated at blocks 1419 and 1423 aresatisfied, request multiplexer 904 issues the node-only broadcastrequest on request bus 905, and the process passes through pageconnector 1425 to block 1427 of FIG. 14C.

Returning again to block 1417, if the request is system-wide broadcastrequest rather than a node-only broadcast request, the process proceedsto block 1412, beginning tenure 1300 of FIG. 13. Block 1412 depictsrequest multiplexer 904 broadcasting the request on request bus 905 toeach of the outbound X, Y and Z links and to the local hub addresslaunch buffer 910. Thereafter, the process bifurcates and passes throughpage connectors 1414 and 1416 to FIG. 14B, which illustrates theprocessing of the request at each of the local hubs 100.

With reference now to FIG. 14B, processing of the request at the localhub 100 that is also the local master 100 is illustrated beginning atblock 1416, and processing of the request at each of the other localhubs 100 in the same processing node 202 as the local master 100 isdepicted beginning at block 1414. Turning first to block 1414, requestsreceived by a local hub 100 on the inbound X, Y and Z links are receivedby LH address launch buffer 910. As depicted at block 1420 and in FIG.10, map logic 1010 maps each of the X, Y and Z requests to theappropriate ones of position-dependent FIFO queues 1020 a-1020 d forbuffering. As noted above, requests received on the X, Y and Z links andplaced within position-dependent queues 1020 a-1020 d are notimmediately validated. Instead, the requests are subject to respectiveones of tuning delays 1000 a-1000 d, which synchronize the handling ofthe X, Y and Z requests and the local request on a given local hub 100with the handling of the corresponding requests at the other local hubs100 in the same processing node 202 (block 1422). Thereafter, as shownat block 1430, the tuning delays 1000 validate their respective requestswithin position-dependent FIFO queues 1020 a-1020 d.

Referring now to block 1416, at the local master/local hub 100, therequest on request bus 905 is fed directly into LH address launch buffer910. Because no inter-chip link is traversed, this local request arrivesat LH address launch FIFO 910 earlier than requests issued in the samecycle arrive on the inbound X, Y and Z links. Accordingly, following themapping by map logic 1010, which is illustrated at block 1424, one oftuning delays 1000 a-100 d applies a long delay to the local request tosynchronize its validation with the validation of requests received onthe inbound X, Y and Z links (block 1426). Following this delayinterval, the relevant tuning delay 1000 validates the local request, asshown at block 1430.

Following the validation of the requests queued within LH address launchbuffer 910 at block 1430, the process then proceeds to blocks 1434-1440,each of which represents a condition on the issuance of a request fromLH address launch buffer 910 enforced by arbiter 1032. As noted above,the arbiters 1032 within all processing units 100 are synchronized sothat the same decision is made by all local hubs 100 withoutinter-communication. As depicted at block 1434, an arbiter 1032 permitslocal hub request multiplexer 1030 to output a request only if anaddress tenure is then available for the request in the outbound secondtier link information allocation. Thus, for example, arbiter 1032 causeslocal hub request multiplexer 1030 to initiate transmission of requestsonly during cycle 0 or 2 of the embodiment of FIG. 7B or cycle 0 of theembodiment of FIG. 8B. In addition, a request is output by local hubrequest multiplexer 1030 if the fair arbitration policy implemented byarbiter 1032 determines that the request belongs to theposition-dependent FIFO queue 1020 a-1020 d that should be serviced next(block 1436).

As depicted further at blocks 1437 and 1438, arbiter 1032 causes localhub request multiplexer 1030 to output a request only if it determinesthat it has not been outputting too many requests in successive addresstenures. Specifically, at shown at block 1437, to avoid overdriving therequest buses 905 of the hubs 100 connected to the outbound A and Blinks, arbiter 1032 assumes the worst case (i.e., that the upstream hub100 connected to the other second tier link of the downstream hub 100 istransmitting a request in the same cycle) and launches requests duringno more than half (i.e., 1/t2) of the available address tenures. Inaddition, as depicted at block 1438, arbiter 1032 further restricts thelaunch of requests below a fair allocation of the traffic on the secondtier links to avoid possibly “starving” the masters 300 in theprocessing units 100 coupled to its outbound A and B links.

For example, given the embodiment of FIG. 2, where there are 2 pairs ofsecond tier links and 4 processing units 100 per processing node 202,traffic on the request bus 905 of the downstream hub 100 is subject tocontention by up to 9 processing units 100, namely, the 4 processingunits 100 in each of the 2 processing nodes 202 coupled to thedownstream hub 100 by second tier links and the downstream hub 100itself. Consequently, an exemplary fair allocation policy that dividesthe bandwidth of request bus 905 evenly among the possible requestsources allocates 4/9 of the bandwidth to each of the inbound A and Blinks and 1/9 of the bandwidth to the local masters 300. Generalizingfor any number of first and second tier links, the fraction of theavailable address frames allocated consumed by the exemplary fairallocation policy employed by arbiter 1032 can be expressed as:fraction=(t1/2+1)/(t2/2*(t1/2+1)+1)where t1 and t2 represent the total number of first and second tierlinks to which a processing unit 100 may be coupled, the quantity“t1/2+1” represents the number of processing units 100 per processingnode 202, the quantity “t2/2” represents the number of processing nodes202 to which a downstream hub 100 may be coupled, and the constantquantity “1” represents the fractional bandwidth allocated to thedownstream hub 100.

As shown at block 1439, arbiter 1032 further throttles the transmissionof system-wide broadcast requests by issuing a system-wide broadcastrequest only if the request address does not hash to the same bank 1912of a banked resource 1910 as any of a R-1 prior requests buffered withinprevious request FIFO buffer 911, where 1/R is the fraction of themaximum arrival rate at which the slowest protected snooping device 1900can service requests. Thus, the throttling of system-wide broadcastrequests in the manner shown will limit the number of requests that canarrive at a given snooping device 1900 in a given number of cycles,which can be expressed as:throttled_arr_rate=N requests per R cycleswhere N is the number of processing nodes 202. Snooping devices 1900 arepreferably designed to handle requests arriving at such a throttledarrival rate without retry.

Referring finally to the condition shown at block 1440, arbiter 1032permits a request to be output by local hub request multiplexer 1030only if an entry is available for allocation in LH tag FIFO queue 924 a(block 1440).

If a negative determination is made at any of blocks 1434-1440, therequest is delayed, as indicated at block 1442, until a subsequent cycleduring which all of the determinations illustrated at blocks 1434-1440are positive. If, on the other hand, positive determinations are made atall of blocks 1434-1440, arbiter 1032 signals local hub requestmultiplexer 1030 to output the selected request to an input ofmultiplexer 920, which always gives priority to a request, if any,presented by LH address launch buffer 910. Thus, multiplexer 920 issuesthe request on snoop bus 922. It should be noted that the other ports ofmultiplexer 920 (e.g., RH, RLX, RLY, and RLZ) could present requestsconcurrently with LH address launch buffer 910, meaning that the maximumbandwidth of snoop bus 922 must equal 10/8 (assuming the embodiment ofFIG. 7B) or 5/6 (assuming the embodiment of FIG. 8B) of the bandwidth ofthe outbound A and B links in order to keep up with maximum arrivalrate.

It should also be observed that only requests buffered within local hubaddress launch buffer 910 are transmitted on the outbound A and B linksand are required to be aligned with address tenures within the linkinformation allocation. Because all other requests competing forissuance by multiplexer 920 target only the local snoopers 304 and theirrespective FIFO queues rather than the outbound A and B links, suchrequests may be issued in the remaining cycles of the informationframes. Consequently, regardless of the particular arbitration schemeemployed by multiplexer 920, all requests concurrently presented tomultiplexer 920 are guaranteed to be transmitted within the latency of asingle information frame.

As indicated at block 1444, in response to the issuance of the requeston snoop bus 922, LH tag FIFO queue 924 a records the master tagspecified in the request in the master tag field 1100 of the nextavailable entry, beginning tenure 1302. The request is then routed tothe outbound A and B links, as shown at block 1446. The process thenpasses through page connector 1448 to FIG. 14B, which depicts theprocessing of the request at each of the remote hubs during the requestphase.

The process depicted in FIG. 14B also proceeds from block 1446 to block1450, which illustrates local hub 100 freeing the local hub tokenallocated to the request in response to the removal of the request fromLH address launch buffer 910, ending tenure 1300. The request is furtherrouted to the snoopers 304 in the local hub 100, as shown at block 1452.In response to receipt of the request, snoopers 304 generate a partialresponse (block 1454), which is recorded within LH partial response FIFOqueue 930, beginning tenure 1304 (block 1456). In particular, at block1456, an entry 1200 in the LH partial response FIFO queue 930 isallocated to the request by reference to allocation pointer 1210,allocation pointer 1210 is incremented, the partial response of thelocal hub is placed within the partial response field 1202 of theallocated entry, and the local (L) flag is set in the response flagfield 1204. Thereafter, request phase processing at the local hub 100ends at block 1458.

Referring now to FIG. 14C, there is depicted a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of request processing at a remote hub(or for a node-only broadcast request, a node master) 100 in accordancewith the present invention. As depicted, for a system-wide broadcastrequest, the process begins at page connector 1448 upon receipt of therequest at the remote hub 100 on one of its inbound A and B links. Asnoted above, after the request is latched into a respective one of holdbuffers 902 a-902 b as shown at block 1460, the request is evaluated byremote hub multiplexer 903 and request multiplexer 904 for transmissionon request bus 905, as depicted at blocks 1464 and 1465. Specifically,at block 1464, remote hub multiplexer 903 determines whether to outputthe request in accordance with a fair allocation policy that evenlyallocates address tenures to requests received on the inbound secondtier links. In addition, at illustrated at block 1465, requestmultiplexer 904, which is timeslice-aligned with the first tier linkinformation allocation, outputs a request only if an address tenure isthen available. Thus, as shown at block 1466, if a request is not awinning request under the fair allocation policy of multiplexer 903 orif no address tenure is then available, multiplexer 904 waits for thenext address tenure. It will be appreciated, however, that even if arequest received on an inbound second tier link is delayed, the delaywill be no more than one frame of the first tier link informationallocation.

If both the conditions depicted at blocks 1464 and 1465 are met,multiplexer 904 launches the request on request bus 905, and the processproceeds from block 1465 to block 1468. As indicated, request phaseprocessing at the node master 100, which continues at block 1423 fromblock 1421 of FIG. 14A, also passes to block 1468. Block 1468illustrates the routing of the request issued on request bus 905 to theoutbound X, Y and Z links, as well as to NM/RH hold buffer 906.Following block 1468, the process bifurcates. A first path passesthrough page connector 1470 to FIG. 14D, which illustrates an exemplarymethod of request processing at the remote (or node) leaves 100. Thesecond path from block 1468 proceeds to block 1474, which illustratesthe snoop multiplexer 920 determining which of the requests presented atits inputs to output on snoop bus 922. As indicated, snoop multiplexer920 prioritizes local hub requests over remote hub requests, which arein turn prioritized over requests buffered in NL/RL hold buffers 914a-914 c. Thus, if a local hub request is presented for selection by LHaddress launch buffer 910, the request buffered within NM/RH hold buffer906 is delayed, as shown at block 1476. If, however, no request ispresented by LH address launch buffer 910, snoop multiplexer 920 issuesthe request from NM/RH hold buffer 906 on snoop bus 922.

In response to detecting the request on snoop bus 922, the appropriateone of tag FIFO queues 924 b (i.e., for node-only broadcast requests, NMtag FIFO queue 924 b 2, and for system-wide broadcast request, the oneof RH tag FIFO queues 924 b 0 and 924 b 1 associated with the inboundsecond tier link on which the request was received) places the mastertag specified by the request into master tag field 1100 of its nextavailable entry, beginning tenure 1306 or 1320 (block 1478). As notedabove, node-only broadcast requests and system-wide broadcast requestsare differentiated by a scope indicator 730 or 830 within the Ttypefield 700 or 800 of the request. The request is further routed to thesnoopers 304 in the remote hub 100, as shown at block 1480. In responseto receipt of the request, snoopers 304 generate a partial response atblock 1482, which is recorded within NM/RH partial response FIFO queue940, beginning tenure 1308 or 1322 (block 1484). In particular, an entry1230 in the NM/RH partial response FIFO queue 940 is allocated to therequest by reference to its allocation pointer 1210, the allocationpointer 1210 is incremented, the partial response of the remote hub isplaced within the partial response field 1202, and the nodemaster/remote flag (NM/R) is set in the response flag field 1234. Itshould be noted that NM/RH partial response FIFO queue 940 thus bufferspartial responses for operations of differing scope in the same datastructure. Thereafter, request phase processing at the remote hub 100ends at block 1486.

With reference now to FIG. 14D, there is illustrated a high levellogical flowchart of an exemplary method of request processing at aremote leaf (or node leaf) 100 in accordance with the present invention.As shown, the process begins at page connector 1470 upon receipt of therequest at the remote leaf or node leaf 100 on one of its inbound X, Yand Z links. As indicated at block 1490, in response to receipt of therequest, the request is latched into of the particular one of NL/RL holdbuffers 914 a-914 c associated with the first tier link upon which therequest was received. Next, as depicted at block 1491, the request isevaluated by snoop multiplexer 920 together with the other requestspresented to its inputs. As discussed above, snoop multiplexer 920prioritizes local hub requests over remote hub requests, which are inturn prioritized over requests buffered in NL/RL hold buffers 914 a-914c. Thus, if a local hub or remote hub request is presented forselection, the request buffered within the NL/RL hold buffer 914 isdelayed, as shown at block 1492. If, however, no higher priority requestis presented to snoop multiplexer 920, snoop multiplexer 920 issues therequest from the NL/RL hold buffer 914 on snoop bus 922, fairly choosingbetween X, Y and Z requests.

In response to detecting request on snoop bus 922, the particular one oftag FIFO queues 924 c 0-924 c 2, 924 d 0-924 c 2 and 924 e 0-924 e 2associated with the scope of the request and the route by which therequest was received places the master tag specified by the request intothe master tag field 1100 of its next available entry, beginning tenure1310 or 1324 (block 1493). That is, the scope indicator 730 or 830within the Ttype field 700 or 800 of the request is utilized todetermine whether the request is of node-only or system-wide scope. Asnoted above, for node-only broadcast requests, the particular one of NLtag FIFO queues 924 c 2, 924 d 2 and 924 e 2 associated with the inboundfirst tier link upon which the request was received buffers the mastertag. For system-wide broadcast requests, the master tag is placed in theparticular one of RL tag FIFO queues 924 c 0-924 c 1, 924 d 0-924 d 1and 924 e 0-924 e 1 corresponding to the combination of inbound firstand second tier links upon which the request was received. The requestis further routed to the snoopers 304 in the remote leaf 100, as shownat block 1494. In response to receipt of the request, the snoopers 304process the request, generate their respective partial responses, andaccumulate the partial responses to obtain the partial response of thatprocessing unit 100 (block 1495). As indicated by page connector 1497,the partial response of the snoopers 304 of the remote leaf or node leaf100 is handled in accordance with FIG. 16A, which is described below.

FIG. 14E is a high level logical flowchart of an exemplary method bywhich snooper s304 generate partial responses for requests, for example,at blocks 1454, 1482 and 1495 of FIGS. 14B-14D. The process begins atblock 1401 in response to receipt by a snooper 304 (e.g., an IMC snooper126, L2 cache snooper 116 or a snooper within an I/O controller 128) ofa request. In response to receipt of the request, the snooper 304determines by reference to the transaction type specified by the requestwhether or not the request is a write-type request, such as a castoutrequest, write request, or partial write request. In response to thesnooper 304 determining at block 1403 that the request is not awrite-type request (e.g., a read or RWITM request), the process proceedsto block 1405, which illustrates the snooper 304 generating the partialresponse for the request, if required, by conventional processing. If,however, the snooper 304 determines that the request is write-typerequest, the process proceeds to block 1407.

Block 1407 depicts the snooper 304 determining whether or not it is theLPC for the request address specified by the write-type request. Forexample, snooper 304 may make the illustrated determination by referenceto one or more base address registers (BARs) and/or address hashfunctions specifying address range(s) for which the snooper 304 isresponsible (i.e., the LPC). If snooper 304 determines that it is notthe LPC for the request address, the process passes to block 1409. Block1409 illustrates snooper 304 generating a write request partial response720 (FIG. 7C) in which the valid field 722 and the destination tag field724 are formed of all ‘0’s, thereby signifying that the snooper 304 isnot the LPC for the request address. If, however, snooper 304 determinesat block 1407 that it is the LPC for the request address, the processpasses to block 1411, which depicts snooper 304 generating a writerequest partial response 720 in which valid field 722 is set to ‘1’ anddestination tag field 724 specifies a destination tag or route thatuniquely identifies the location of snooper 304 within data processingsystem 200. Following either of blocks 1409 or 1411, the process shownin FIG. 14E ends at block 1413.

VII. Partial Response Phase Structure and Operation

Referring now to FIG. 15, there is depicted a block diagram illustratingan exemplary embodiment of the partial response logic 121 b withininterconnect logic 120 of FIG. 1. As shown, partial response logic 121 bincludes route logic 1500 that routes a remote partial responsegenerated by the snoopers 304 at a remote leaf (or node leaf) 100 backto the remote hub (or node master) 100 from which the request wasreceived via the appropriate one of outbound first tier X, Y and Zlinks. In addition, partial response logic 121 b includes combininglogic 1502 and route logic 1504. Combining logic 1502 accumulatespartial responses received from remote (or node) leaves 100 with otherpartial response(s) for the same request that are buffered within NM/RHpartial response FIFO queue 940. For a node-only broadcast operation,the combining logic 1502 of the node master 100 provides the accumulatedpartial response directly to response logic 122. For a system-widebroadcast operation, combining logic 1502 supplies the accumulatedpartial response to route logic 1504, which routes the accumulatedpartial response to the local hub 100 via one of outbound A and B links.

Partial response logic 121 b further includes hold buffers 1506 a-1506b, which receive and buffer partial responses from remote hubs 100, amultiplexer 1507, which applies a fair arbitration policy to select fromamong the partial responses buffered within hold buffers 1506 a-1506 b,and broadcast logic 1508, which broadcasts the partial responsesselected by multiplexer 1507 to each other processing unit 100 in itsprocessing node 202. As further indicated by the path coupling theoutput of multiplexer 1507 to programmable delay 1509, multiplexer 1507performs a local broadcast of the partial response that is delayed byprogrammable delay 1509 by approximately one first tier link latency sothat the locally broadcast partial response is received by combininglogic 1510 at approximately the same time as the partial responsesreceived from other processing units 100 on the inbound X, Y and Zlinks. Combining logic 1510 accumulates the partial responses receivedon the inbound X, Y and Z links and the locally broadcast partialresponse received from an inbound second tier link with the locallygenerated partial response (which is buffered within LH partial responseFIFO queue 930) and passes the accumulated partial response to responselogic 122 for generation of the combined response for the request.

With reference now to FIGS. 16A-16C, there are illustrated flowchartsrespectively depicting exemplary processing during the partial responsephase of an operation at a remote leaf (or node leaf), remote hub (ornode master), and local hub. In these figures, transmission of partialresponses may be subject to various delays that are not explicitlyillustrated. However, because there is no timing constraint on partialresponse latency as discussed above, such delays, if present, will notinduce errors in operation and are accordingly not described furtherherein.

Referring now specifically to FIG. 16A, partial response phaseprocessing at the remote leaf (or node leaf) 100 begins at block 1600when the snoopers 304 of the remote leaf (or node leaf) 100 generatepartial responses for the request. As shown at block 1602, route logic1500 then routes, using the remote partial response field 712 or 812 ofthe link information allocation, the partial response to the remote hub100 for the request via the outbound X, Y or Z link corresponding to theinbound first tier link on which the request was received. As indicatedabove, the inbound first tier link on which the request was received isindicated by which one of tag FIFO queues 924 c 0-924 c 2, 924 d 0-924 d2 and 924 e 0-924 e 2 holds the master tag for the request. Thereafter,partial response processing continues at the remote hub (or node master)100, as indicated by page connector 1604 and as described below withreference to FIG. 16B.

With reference now to FIG. 16B, there is illustrated a high levellogical flowchart of an exemplary embodiment of a method of partialresponse processing at a remote hub (or node master) in accordance withthe present invention. The illustrated process begins at page connector1604 in response to receipt of the partial response of one of the remoteleaves (or node leaves) 100 coupled to the remote hub (or node master)100 by one of the first tier X, Y and Z links. In response to receipt ofthe partial response, combining logic 1502 reads out the entry 1230within NM/RH partial response FIFO queue 940 allocated to the operation.The entry is identified by the FIFO ordering observed within NM/RHpartial response FIFO queue 940, as indicated by the X, Y or Z pointer1216-1220 associated with the link on which the partial response wasreceived. Combining logic 1502 then accumulates the partial response ofthe remote (or node) leaf 100 with the contents of the partial responsefield 1202 of the entry 1230 that was read. As mentioned above, theaccumulation operation is preferably a non-destructive operation, suchas a logical OR operation. Next, combining logic 1502 determines atblock 1614 by reference to the response flag array 1234 of the entry1230 whether, with the partial response received at block 1604, all ofthe remote leaves 100 have reported their respective partial responses.If not, the process proceeds to block 1616, which illustrates combininglogic 1502 updating the partial response field 1202 of the entry 1230allocated to the operation with the accumulated partial response,setting the appropriate flag in response flag array 1234 to indicatewhich remote leaf 100 provided a partial response, and advancing theassociated one of pointers 1216-1220. Thereafter, the process ends atblock 1618.

Referring again to block 1614, in response to a determination bycombining logic 1502 that all remote (or node) leaves 100 have reportedtheir respective partial responses for the operation, combining logic1502 deallocates the entry 1230 for the operation from NM/RH partialresponse FIFO queue 940 by reference to deallocation pointer 1212,ending tenure 1308 or 1322 (block 1620). As indicated by blocks 1621 and1623, if the route field 1236 of the entry indicates that the operationis a node-only broadcast operation, combining logic 1502 provides theaccumulated partial response directly to response logic 122. Thereafter,the process passes through page connector 1625 to FIG. 18A, which isdescribed below. Returning to block 1621, if the route field 1236 of thedeallocated entry indicates that the operation is a system-widebroadcast operation rather than a node-only broadcast operation,combining logic 1502 instead routes the accumulated partial response tothe particular one of the outbound A and B links indicated by thecontents of route field 1236 utilizing the remote partial response field712 or 812 in the link allocation information, as depicted at block1622. Thereafter, the process passes through page connector 1624 to FIG.16C.

Referring now to FIG. 16C, there is depicted a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of partial response processing at alocal hub 100 (including the local master 100) in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. The process begins at block 1624 inresponse to receipt at the local hub 100 of a partial response from aremote hub 100 via one of the inbound A and B links. Upon receipt, thepartial response is placed within the hold buffer 1506 a, 1506 b coupledto the inbound second tier link upon which the partial response wasreceived (block 1626). As indicated at block 1627, multiplexer 1507applies a fair arbitration policy to select from among the partialresponses buffered within hold buffers 1506 a-1506 b. Thus, if thepartial response is not selected by the fair arbitration policy,broadcast of the partial response is delayed, as shown at block 1628.Once the partial response is selected by fair arbitration policy,possibly after a delay, multiplexer 1507 outputs the partial response tobroadcast logic 1508 and programmable delay 1509. The output bus ofmultiplexer 1507 will not become overrun by partial responses becausethe arrival rate of partial responses is limited by the rate of requestlaunch. Following block 1627, the process proceeds to block 1629.

Block 1629 depicts broadcast logic 1508 broadcasting the partialresponses selected by multiplexer 1507 to each other processing unit 100in its processing node 202 via the first tier X, Y and Z links, andmultiplexer 1507 performing a local broadcast of the partial response byoutputting the partial response to programmable delay 1509. Thereafter,the process bifurcates and proceeds to each of block 1631, whichillustrates the continuation of partial response phase processing at theother local hubs 100, and block 1630. As shown at block 1630, thepartial response broadcast within the present local hub 100 is delayedby programmable delay 1509 by approximately the transmission latency ofa first tier link so that the locally broadcast partial response isreceived by combining logic 1510 at approximately the same time as thepartial response(s) received from other processing units 100 on theinbound X, Y and Z links. As illustrated at block 1640, combining logic1510 accumulates the locally broadcast partial response with the partialresponse(s) received from the inbound first tier link and with thelocally generated partial response, which is buffered within LH partialresponse FIFO queue 930.

In order to accumulate the partial responses, combining logic 1510 firstreads out the entry 1200 within LH partial response FIFO queue 930allocated to the operation. The entry is identified by the FIFO orderingobserved within LH partial response FIFO queue 930, as indicated by theparticular one of pointers 1214, 1215 upon which the partial responsewas received. Combining logic 1510 then accumulates the locallybroadcast partial response of the remote hub 100 with the contents ofthe partial response field 1202 of the entry 1200 that was read. Next,as shown at blocks 1642, combining logic 1510 further determines byreference to the response flag array 1204 of the entry 1200 whether ornot, with the currently received partial response(s), partial responseshave been received from each processing unit 100 from which a partialresponse was expected. If not, the process passes to block 1644, whichdepicts combining logic 1510 updating the entry 1200 read from LHpartial response FIFO queue 930 with the newly accumulated partialresponse. Thereafter, the process ends at block 1646.

Returning to block 1642, if combining logic 1510 determines that allprocessing units 100 from which partial responses are expected havereported their partial responses, the process proceeds to block 1650.Block 1650 depicts combining logic 1510 deallocating the entry 1200allocated to the operation from LH partial response FIFO queue 930 byreference to deallocation pointer 1212, ending tenure 1304. Combininglogic 1510 then passes the accumulated partial response to responselogic 122 for generation of the combined response, as depicted at block1652. Thereafter, the process passes through page connector 1654 to FIG.18A, which illustrates combined response processing at the local hub100.

Referring now to block 1632, processing of partial response(s) receivedby a local hub 100 on one or more first tier links begins when thepartial response(s) is/are received by combining logic 1510. As shown atblock 1634, combining logic 1510 may apply small tuning delays to thepartial response(s) received on the inbound first tier links in order tosynchronize processing of the partial response(s) with each other andthe locally broadcast partial response. Thereafter, the partialresponse(s) are processed as depicted at block 1640 and followingblocks, which have been described.

VIII. Combined Response Phase Structure and Operation

Referring now to FIG. 17, there is depicted a block diagram of exemplaryembodiment of the combined response logic 121 c within interconnectlogic 120 of FIG. 1 in accordance with the present invention. As shown,combined response logic 121 c includes hold buffers 1702 a-1702 b, whicheach receives and buffers combined responses from a remote hub 100coupled to the local hub 100 by a respective one of inbound A and Blinks. The outputs of hold buffers 1702 a-1702 b form two inputs of afirst multiplexer 1704, which applies a fair arbitration policy toselect from among the combined responses, if any, buffered by holdbuffers 1702 a-1702 b for launch onto first bus 1705 within a combinedresponse field 710 or 810 of an information frame.

First multiplexer 1704 has a third input by which combined responses ofnode-only broadcast operations are presented by response logic 122 forselection and launch onto first bus 1705 within a combined responsefield 710 or 810 of an information frame in the absence of any combinedresponse in hold buffers 1702 a-1702 b. Because first multiplexer 1704always gives precedence to combined responses for system-wide broadcastoperations received from remote hubs 100 over locally generated combinedresponses for node-only broadcast operations, response logic 122 may,under certain operating conditions, have to wait a significant period inorder for first multiplexer 1704 to select the combined response itpresents. Consequently, in the worst case, response logic 122 must beable to queue a number of combined response and partial response pairsequal to the number of entries in NM tag FIFO queue 924 b 2, whichdetermines the maximum number of node-only broadcast operations that agiven processing unit 100 can have in flight at any one time. Even ifthe combined responses are delayed for a significant period, theobservation of the combined response by masters 300 and snoopers 304will be delayed by the same amount of time. Consequently, delayinglaunch of the combined response does not risk a violation of the timingconstraint set forth above because the time between observation of thecombined response by the winning master 300 and observation of thecombined response by the owning snooper 304 is not thereby decreased.

First bus 1705 is coupled to each of the outbound X, Y and Z links and anode master/remote hub (NM/RH) buffer 1706. For node-only broadcastoperations, NM/RH buffer 1706 buffers a combined response andaccumulated partial response (i.e., destination tag) provided by theresponse logic 122 at this node master 100.

The inbound first tier X, Y and Z links are each coupled to a respectiveone of remote leaf (RL) buffers 1714 a-1714 c. The outputs of NM/RHbuffer 1706 and RL buffers 1714 a-1714 c form 4 inputs of a secondmultiplexer 1720. Second multiplexer 1720 has an additional fifth inputcoupled to the output of a local hub (LH) hold buffer 1710 that, for asystem-wide broadcast operation, buffers a combined response andaccumulated partial response (i.e., destination tag) provided by theresponse logic 122 at this local hub 100. The output of secondmultiplexer 1720 drives combined responses onto a second bus 1722 towhich tag FIFO queues 924 and the outbound second tier links arecoupled. As illustrated, tag FIFO queues 924 are further coupled toreceive, via an additional channel, an accumulated partial response(i.e., destination tag) buffered in LH hold buffer 1710 or NM/RH buffer1706. Masters 300 and snoopers 304 are further coupled to tag FIFOqueues 924. The connections to tag FIFO queues 924 permits snoopers 304to observe the combined response and permits the relevant master 300 toreceive the combined response and destination tag, if any.

Without the window extension 312 b described above, observation of thecombined response by the masters 300 and snoopers 304 at substantiallythe same time could, in some operating scenarios, cause the timingconstraint term regarding the combined response latency from the winningmaster 300 to snooper 304 n (i.e., C_lat(WM_S)) to approach zero,violating the timing constraint. However, because window extension 312 bhas a duration of approximately the first tier link transmissionlatency, the timing constraint set forth above can be satisfied despitethe substantially concurrent observation of the combined response bymasters 300 and snoopers 304.

With reference now to FIGS. 18A-18C, there are depicted high levellogical flowcharts respectively depicting exemplary combined responsephase processing at a local hub (or node master), remote hub (or nodemaster), and remote leaf (or node leaf) in accordance with an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention. Referring now specifically to FIG.18A, combined response phase processing at the local hub (or nodemaster) 100 begins at block 1800 and then proceeds to block 1802, whichdepicts response logic 122 generating the combined response for anoperation based upon the type of request and the accumulated partialresponse. As indicated at blocks 1803-1805, if the scope indicator 730or 830 within the combined response 710 or 810 indicates that theoperation is a node-only broadcast operation, combined response phaseprocessing at the node master 100 continues at block 1863 of FIG. 18B.However, if the scope indicator 730 or 830 indicates that the operationis a system-wide broadcast operation, response logic 122 of the remotehub 100 places the combined response and the accumulated partialresponse into LH hold buffer 1710, as shown at block 1804. By virtue ofthe accumulation of partial responses utilizing an OR operation, forwrite-type requests, the accumulated partial response will contain avalid field 722 set to ‘1’ to signify the presence of a validdestination tag within the accompanying destination tag field 724. Forother types of requests, bit 0 of the accumulated partial response willbe set to ‘0’ to indicate that no such destination tag is present.

As depicted at block 1844, second multiplexer 1720 is time-slice alignedwith the selected second tier link information allocation and selects acombined response and accumulated partial response from LH hold buffer1710 for launch only if an address tenure is then available for thecombined response in the outbound second tier link informationallocation. Thus, for example, second multiplexer 1720 outputs acombined response and accumulated partial response from LH hold buffer1710 only during cycle 1 or 3 of the embodiment of FIG. 7B or cycle 1 ofthe embodiment of FIG. 8B. If a negative determination is made at block1844, the launch of the combined response within LH hold buffer 1710 isdelayed, as indicated at block 1846, until a subsequent cycle duringwhich an address tenure is available. If, on the other hand, a positivedetermination is made at block 1844, second multiplexer 1720preferentially selects the combined response within LH hold buffer 1710over its other inputs for launch onto second bus 1722 and subsequenttransmission on the outbound second tier links.

It should also be noted that the other ports of second multiplexer 1720(e.g., RH, RLX, RLY, and RLZ) could also present requests concurrentlywith LH hold buffer 1710, meaning that the maximum bandwidth of secondbus 1722 must equal 10/8 (assuming the embodiment of FIG. 7B) or 5/6(assuming the embodiment of FIG. 8B) of the bandwidth of the outboundsecond tier links in order to keep up with maximum arrival rate. Itshould further be observed that only combined responses buffered withinLH hold buffer 1710 are transmitted on the outbound second tier linksand are required to be aligned with address tenures within the linkinformation allocation. Because all other combined responses competingfor issuance by second multiplexer 1720 target only the local masters300, snoopers 304 and their respective FIFO queues rather than theoutbound second tier links, such combined responses may be issued in theremaining cycles of the information frames. Consequently, regardless ofthe particular arbitration scheme employed by second multiplexer 1720,all combined responses concurrently presented to second multiplexer 1720are guaranteed to be transmitted within the latency of a singleinformation frame.

Following the issuance of the combined response on second bus 1722, theprocess bifurcates and proceeds to each of blocks 1848 and 1852. Block1848 depicts routing the combined response launched onto second bus 1722to the outbound second tier links for transmission to the remote hubs100. Thereafter, the process proceeds through page connector 1850 toFIG. 18C, which depicts an exemplary method of combined responseprocessing at the remote hubs 100.

Referring now to block 1852, the combined response issued on second bus1722 is also utilized to query LH tag FIFO queue 924 a to obtain themaster tag from the oldest entry therein. Thereafter, LH tag FIFO queue924 a deallocates the entry allocated to the operation, ending tenure1302 (block 1854). Following block 1854, the process bifurcates andproceeds to each of blocks 1810 and 1856. At block 1810, LH tag FIFOqueue 924 a determines whether the master tag indicates that the master300 that originated the request associated with the combined responseresides in this local hub 100. If not, processing in this path ends atblock 1816. If, however, the master tag indicates that the originatingmaster 300 resides in the present local hub 100, LH tag FIFO queue 924 aroutes the master tag, the combined response and the accumulated partialresponse to the originating master 300 identified by the master tag(block 1812). In response to receipt of the combined response and mastertag, the originating master 300 processes the combined response, and ifthe corresponding request was a write-type request, the accumulatedpartial response (block 1814).

For example, if the combined response indicates “success” and thecorresponding request was a read-type request (e.g., a read, DClaim orRWITM request), the originating master 300 may update or prepare toreceive a requested memory block. In this case, the accumulated partialresponse is discarded. If the combined response indicates “success” andthe corresponding request was a write-type request (e.g., a castout,write or partial write request), the originating master 300 extracts thedestination tag field 724 from the accumulated partial response andutilizes the contents thereof as the data tag 714 or 814 used to routethe subsequent data phase of the operation to its destination, asdescribed below with reference to FIGS. 20A-20C. If a “success” combinedresponse indicates or implies a grant of HPC status for the originatingmaster 300, then the originating master 300 will additionally begin toprotect its ownership of the memory block, as depicted at referencenumerals 313 and 1314. If, however, the combined response received atblock 1814 indicates another outcome, such as “retry”, the originatingmaster 300 may be required to reissue the request, perhaps with adifferent scope (e.g., global rather than local). Thereafter, theprocess ends at block 1816.

Referring now to block 1856, LH tag FIFO queue 924 a also routes thecombined response and the associated master tag to the snoopers 304within the local hub 100. In response to receipt of the combinedresponse, snoopers 304 process the combined response and perform anyoperation required in response thereto (block 1857). For example, asnooper 304 may source a requested memory block to the originatingmaster 300 of the request, invalidate a cached copy of the requestedmemory block, etc. If the combined response includes an indication thatthe snooper 304 is to transfer ownership of the memory block to therequesting master 300, snooper 304 appends to the end of its protectionwindow 312 a a programmable-length window extension 312 b, which, forthe illustrated topology, preferably has a duration of approximately thelatency of one chip hop over a first tier link (block 1858). Of course,for other data processing system topologies and differentimplementations of interconnect logic 120, programmable window extension312 b may be advantageously set to other lengths to compensate fordifferences in link latencies (e.g., different length cables couplingdifferent processing nodes 202), topological or physical constraints,circuit design constraints, or large variability in the boundedlatencies of the various operation phases. Thereafter, combined responsephase processing at the local hub 100 ends at block 1859.

Referring now to FIG. 18B, there is depicted a high level logicalflowchart of an exemplary method of combined response phase processingat a remote hub (or node master) 100 in accordance with the presentinvention. As depicted, for combined response phase processing at aremote hub 100, the process begins at page connector 1860 upon receiptof a combined response at a remote hub 100 on one of its inbound A or Blinks. The combined response is then buffered within the associated oneof hold buffers 1702 a-1702 b, as shown at block 1862. The bufferedcombined response is then transmitted by first multiplexer 1704 on firstbus 1705 as soon as the conditions depicted at blocks 1864 and 1865 areboth met. In particular, an address tenure must be available in thefirst tier link information allocation (block 1864) and the fairallocation policy implemented by first multiplexer 1704 must select thehold buffer 1702 a, 1702 b in which the combined response is buffered(block 1865).

As shown at block 1864, if either of these conditions is not met, launchof the combined response by first multiplexer 1704 onto first bus 1705is delayed until the next address tenure. If, however, both conditionsillustrated at blocks 1864 and 1865 are met, the process proceeds fromblock 1865 to block 1868, which illustrates first multiplexer 1704broadcasting the combined response on first bus 1705 to the outbound X,Y and Z links and NM/RH hold buffer 1706 within a combined responsefield 710 or 810. As indicated by the connection of the path containingblocks 1863 and 1867 to block 1868, for node-only broadcast operations,first multiplexer 1704 issues the combined response presented byresponse logic 122 onto first bus 1705 for routing to the outbound X, Yand Z links and NM/RH hold buffer 1706 only if no competing combinedresponses are presented by hold buffers 1702 a-1702 b. If any competingcombined response is received for a system-wide broadcast operation froma remote hub 100 via one of the inbound second tier links, the locallygenerated combined response for the node-only broadcast operation isdelayed, as shown at block 1867. When first multiplexer 1704 finallyselects the locally generated combined response for the node-onlybroadcast operation, response logic 122 places the associatedaccumulated partial response directly into NM/RH hold buffer 1706.

Following block 1868, the process bifurcates. A first path passesthrough page connector 1870 to FIG. 18C, which illustrates an exemplarymethod of combined response phase processing at the remote leaves (ornode leaves) 100. The second path from block 1868 proceeds to block1874, which illustrates the second multiplexer 1720 determining which ofthe combined responses presented at its inputs to output onto second bus1722. As indicated, second multiplexer 1720 prioritizes local hubcombined responses over remote hub combined responses, which are in turnprioritized over combined responses buffered in remote leaf buffers 1714a-1714 c. Thus, if a local hub combined response is presented forselection by LH hold buffer 1710, the combined response buffered withinremote hub buffer 1706 is delayed, as shown at block 1876. If, however,no combined response is presented by LH hold buffer 1710, secondmultiplexer 1720 issues the combined response from NM/RH buffer 1706onto second bus 1722.

In response to detecting the combined response on second bus 1722, theparticular one of tag FIFO queues 924 b 0 and 924 b 1 associated withthe second tier link upon which the combined response was received (orfor node-only broadcast operations, NM tag FIFO queue 924 b 2) reads outthe master tag specified by the relevant request from the master tagfield 1100 of its oldest entry, as depicted at block 1878, and thendeallocates the entry, ending tenure 1306 or 1320 (block 1880). Theprocess then bifurcates and proceeds to each of blocks 1882 and 1881.Block 1882 depicts the relevant one of tag FIFO queues 924 b routing thecombined response and the master tag to the snoopers 304 in the remotehub (or node master) 100. In response to receipt of the combinedresponse, the snoopers 304 process the combined response (block 1884)and perform any required operations, as discussed above. If theoperation is a system-wide broadcast operation and if the combinedresponse includes an indication that the snooper 304 is to transfercoherency ownership of the memory block to the requesting master 300,the snooper 304 appends a window extension 312 b to its protectionwindow 312 a, as shown at block 1885. Thereafter, combined responsephase processing at the remote hub 100 ends at block 1886.

Referring now to block 1881, if the scope indicator 730 or 830 withinthe combined response field 710 or 810 indicates that the operation isnot a node-only broadcast operation but is instead a system-widebroadcast operation, no further processing is performed at the remotehub 100, and the process ends at blocks 1886. If, however, the scopeindicator 730 or 830 indicates that the operation is a node-onlybroadcast operation, the process passes to block 1883, which illustratesNM tag FIFO queue 924 b 2 routing the master tag, the combined responseand the accumulated partial response to the originating master 300identified by the master tag. In response to receipt of the combinedresponse and master tag, the originating master 300 processes thecombined response, and if the corresponding request was a write-typerequest, the accumulated partial response (block 1887).

For example, if the combined response indicates “success” and thecorresponding request was a read-type request (e.g., a read, DClaim orRWITM request), the originating master 300 may update or prepare toreceive a requested memory block. In this case, the accumulated partialresponse is discarded. If the combined response indicates “success” andthe corresponding request was a write-type request (e.g., a castout,write or partial write request), the originating master 300 extracts thedestination tag field 724 from the accumulated partial response andutilizes the contents thereof as the data tag 714 or 814 used to routethe subsequent data phase of the operation to its destination, asdescribed below with reference to FIGS. 20A-20C. If a “success” combinedresponse indicates or implies a grant of HPC status for the originatingmaster 300, then the originating master 300 will additionally begin toprotect its ownership of the memory block, as depicted at referencenumerals 313 and 1314. If, however, the combined response received atblock 1814 indicates another outcome, such as “retry”, the originatingmaster 300 may be required to reissue the request. Thereafter, theprocess ends at block 1886.

With reference now to FIG. 18C, there is illustrated a high levellogical flowchart of an exemplary method of combined response phaseprocessing at a remote (or node) leaf 100 in accordance with the presentinvention. As shown, the process begins at page connector 1888 uponreceipt of a combined response at the remote (or node) leaf 100 on oneof its inbound X, Y and Z links. As indicated at block 1890, thecombined response is latched into one of NL/RL hold buffers 1714 a-1714c. Next, as depicted at block 1891, the combined response is evaluatedby second multiplexer 1720 together with the other combined responsespresented to its inputs. As discussed above, second multiplexer 1720prioritizes local hub combined responses over remote hub combinedresponses, which are in turn prioritized over combined responsesbuffered in NL/RL hold buffers 1714 a-1714 c. Thus, if a local hub orremote hub combined response is presented for selection, the combinedresponse buffered within the NL/RL hold buffer 1714 is delayed, as shownat block 1892. If, however, no higher priority combined response ispresented to second multiplexer 1720, second multiplexer 920 issues thecombined response from the NL/RL hold buffer 1714 onto second bus 1722.

In response to detecting the combined response on second bus 1722, theparticular one of tag FIFO queues 924 c 0-924 c 2, 924 d 0-924 d 2, and924 e 0-924 e 2 associated with the scope of the operation and the routeby which the combined response was received reads out from the mastertag field 1100 of its oldest entry the master tag specified by theassociated request, as depicted at block 1893. That is, the scopeindicator 730 or 830 within the combined response field 710 or 810 isutilized to determine whether the request is of node-only or system-widescope. For node-only broadcast requests, the particular one of NL tagFIFO queues 924 c 2, 924 d 2 and 924 e 2 associated with the inboundfirst tier link upon which the combined response was received buffersthe master tag. For system-wide broadcast requests, the master tag isretrieved from the particular one of RL tag FIFO queues 924 c 0-924 c 1,924 d 0-924 d 1 and 924 e 0-924 e 1 corresponding to the combination ofinbound first and second tier links upon which the combined response wasreceived.

Once the relevant tag FIFO queue 924 identifies the appropriate entryfor the operation, the tag FIFO queue 924 deallocates the entry, endingtenure 1310 or 1324 (block 1894). The combined response and the mastertag are further routed to the snoopers 304 in the remote (or node) leaf100, as shown at block 1895. In response to receipt of the combinedresponse, the snoopers 304 process the combined response (block 1896)and perform any required operations, as discussed above. If theoperation is not a node-only operation and if the combined responseincludes an indication that the snooper 304 is to transfer coherencyownership of the memory block to the requesting master 300, snooper 304appends to the end of its protection window 312 a (also protectionwindow 1312 of FIG. 13) a window extension 312 b, as described above andas shown at block 1897. Thereafter, combined response phase processingat the remote leaf 100 ends at block 1898.

IX. Data Phase Structure and Operation

Data logic 121 d and its handling of data delivery can be implemented ina variety of ways. In one preferred embodiment, data logic 121 d and itsoperation are implemented as described in detail in co-pending U.S.Patent Application incorporated by reference above.

X. Conclusion

As has been described, the present invention provides an improvedprocessing unit, data processing system and interconnect fabric for adata processing system. The inventive data processing system topologydisclosed herein increases in interconnect bandwidth with system scale.In addition, a data processing system employing the topology disclosedherein may also be hot upgraded (i.e., processing nodes may be addedduring operation), downgraded (i.e., processing nodes may be removed),or repaired without disruption of communication between processing unitsin the resulting data processing system through the connection,disconnection or repair of individual processing nodes.

The present invention also advantageously supports the concurrent flowof operations of varying scope (e.g., node-only broadcast mode and asystem-wide broadcast scope). As will be appreciated, support foroperations of less than system-wide scope advantageously conservesbandwidth on the interconnect fabric and enhances overall systemperformance. Moreover, by throttling the launch of requests inaccordance with the servicing rate of snooping devices in the system,snooper retries of operations are advantageously reduced.

While the invention has been particularly shown as described withreference to a preferred embodiment, it will be understood by thoseskilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.For example, although the present invention discloses preferredembodiments in which FIFO queues are utilized to order operation-relatedtags and partial responses, those skilled in the art will appreciatedthat other ordered data structures may be employed to maintain an orderbetween the various tags and partial responses of operations in themanner described. In addition, although preferred embodiments of thepresent invention employ uni-directional communication links, thoseskilled in the art will understand by reference to the foregoing thatbi-directional communication links could alternatively be employed.

1. A data processing system, comprising: an interconnect fabric; aprotected resource having a plurality of banks each associated with arespective one of a plurality of address sets; a snooper coupled to saidinterconnect fabric and to said resource that controls access to saidresource, wherein a maximum service rate at which said snooper canservice requests is less than a maximum request arrival rate supportedby the interconnect fabric; one or more masters that initiate requests;and interconnect logic coupled to said one or more masters and to saidinterconnect fabric, wherein said interconnect logic regulates a rate ofdelivery to said snooper via said interconnect fabric of requests thattarget any one said plurality of banks of said protected resource,wherein said interconnect logic includes a previous request buffer thatbuffers information regarding one or more previous requests that permitsa determination of which of said plurality of banks said one or moreprevious requests targeted, and wherein said interconnect logicregulates said rate of delivery by reference to said previous requestbuffer.
 2. The data processing system of claim 1, wherein said dataprocessing system includes a processing unit containing saidinterconnect logic and said one or more masters.
 3. The data processingsystem of claim 1, wherein said data processing system includes a firstprocessing unit containing said one or more masters and a secondprocessing unit coupled to said first processing unit by saidinterconnect fabric, wherein said second processing unit includes saidinterconnect logic.
 4. The data processing system of claim 1, whereinsaid previous request buffer includes one or more entries eachindicating which if any of said plurality of banks was targeted in aprevious address tenure on said interconnect fabric.
 5. A processingunit for use in a data processing system including an interconnectfabric and a protected resource having a plurality of banks eachassociated with a respective one of a plurality of address sets, saidprocessing unit comprising: a snooper that controls access to saidresource, wherein a maximum service rate at which said snooper canservice requests is less than a maximum request arrival rate supportedby the interconnect fabric; one or more masters that initiate requests;and interconnect logic, coupled to said one or more masters and having aconnection for the interconnect fabric, that regulates a rate ofdelivery to said snooper via said interconnect fabric of requests thattarget any one said plurality of banks of said protected resource,wherein said interconnect logic includes a previous request buffer thatbuffers information regarding one or more previous requests that permitsa determination of which of said plurality of banks said one or moreprevious requests targeted, and wherein said interconnect logicregulates said rate of delivery by reference to said previous requestbuffer.
 6. The processing unit of claim 5, wherein said interconnectlogic regulates a rate of delivery of requests by said one or moremasters.
 7. The processing unit of claim 5, wherein interconnect logicregulates a rate of delivery of requests received by said processingunit on said interconnect fabric from another processing unit.
 8. Theprocessing unit of claim 5, wherein said previous request bufferincludes one or more entries each indicating which if any of saidplurality of banks was targeted in a previous address tenure on saidinterconnect fabric.